Warped Reality
by SA Hanaka
Summary: On the eve of Dudley's Birthday, Harry awakes to an entirely different universe, and nothing is as it should be... Not that Harry knows that. Detailed blurb for every book inside. Aspects of Multicross. Variable Strength Crack. Everyone OOC.
1. The Prologue

Warped Reality

Summary: On the eve of Dudley's Birthday, Harry awakes to an entirely different universe, and nothing is as it should be... Not that Harry knows that. Detailed blurb for every book inside. Aspects of Multicross. Variable Strength Crack. Everyone OCC.

Ownership Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I ever expect to own, Harry Potter, Ranma ½, Baccano!, Black Lagoon, How To Train Your Dragon, or any other franchises mentioned or referenced in this story. No profits are gained by writing this at all.

Other Disclaimer: This is, as a fanfiction, an alternate Universe to canon Harry Potter. Whatever happens is what happens, I'm writing this fic, so I have the final decision on how it pans out.

Persons Disclaimer: Any Character described with resemblance to persons alive, dead, or fictional is purely coincidental. Unless it isn't. Hail Chaos.

Update Disclaimer: I am a busy man, with a busy life full of videogames, and not videogames. And food, which falls under not videogames. Point being that I will update as often or as rarely as I feel like. Having said that, I will attempt to post updates semi-regularly. If I choose to discontinue this fic, I will declare such on my profile rather than simply stopping outright.

Animal Protection disclaimer: No bunnies were killed in the making of this fanfiction. I think.

Warning Disclaimer: This fanfiction will contain elements of Gender-Bending, Insanity, Crossover, And implied non-content of questionable nature. Possibly. It's also pretty much just plain crack.

Enjoyment Disclaimer: It's starting now, I hope you enjoy. However you cannot sue me if you don't.

Introduction Warning: I lied, it starts after this. The prologue is a standard day of Harry Potter canon(ish) pre Hogwarts. Feel free to skip forward to chapter one if you wish. Or read this. Either way, _now_ it's starting.

-=+_SA_+=-

**Prologue: The Day Before Everything Was Different**

As Harry climbed out of the cupboard, he blearily shook the cobwebs from his head, literally, and moved into the kitchen to begin cooking breakfast. Instinctively he checked the clock on the oven, which displayed 06:07, as he began to pull out frying pans from the cupboard. There were quickly five rashers of bacon, four sausages, and some bread being fried, and Harry opened up a tin of baked beans and deposited half of the tin into a sauce pan, even as his aunt watched him from her seat in the dining room.

Harry had just deposited the entirety of his cooking onto a single plate and placed that plate onto the table when his uncle, Vernon walked into the room. He sniffed in derision and murmured "Adequate." under his breathe. Harry merely ducked his head and returned to the kitchen.

He almost immediately refilled the saucepan with more baked beans and the frying pans with another seven rashers, three sausages, and some eggs. This time he had returned to the kitchen after depositing the plate on the table by the time his cousin, Dudley appeared. While Dudley began to stuff his face at a much faster rate than his father, Harry began to prepare the light salad that made up Petunia's breakfast.

Dudley's dirty blond hair came from Vernon, as did his unfortunately large girth. His bland pale blue eyes however came from Petunia. On the other hand Vernon had sharp brown eyes, and Petunia had rather ordinary brown hair and a stick-like figure.

None of his family had any of Harry's features. His mess of black hair came from his father, as did most of his looks. His eyes however, a rather charming Emerald green came from his mother, Petunia's sister.

As Harry handed the salad to his aunt and began to wash up the cooking utensils used in making everyone's breakfast, he watched his aunt. As soon as she looked away to eat her salad, he grabbed a single biscuit from the biscuit tin and stuffed it into his mouth. No one saw him, and he quickly munched it down as he continued washing up.

As soon as he was done, he put two slices of bread into the toaster and got out the butter. Harry himself was only allowed toast and a meagre amount of butter for breakfast.

Almost immediately after he finished spreading, the post arrived.

"Get the post boy!" Said Vernon clearly between two bites of breakfast.

Sighing inaudibly, Harry retrieved the post, a bundle of letters for his uncle for the most part. Even as he turned back towards the dining room though, he saw Dudley casually flip his toast onto the floor with an evil smirk.

"Harry! Clean that up!" Came the shrill call from Petunia, even as he watched Dudley waddle back to finish his own breakfast. Harry quickly placed the post next his uncle before taking the toast and binning it. He was at least glad he slipped the biscuit in as he wiped up the butter residue with a cloth. He knew from past experience that to take the toast down the corridor to the front door would be met with punishment for spreading crumbs, and eating the toast from the floor would result likewise for 'eating like a mongrel'. Thankfully he had the mess cleaned before Vernon decided to deal out additional punishment.

Although that may be because the two adults were a bit preoccupied.

Even as Harry slipped out after breakfast to spend another summer day in the fresh air, he knew he wouldn't get away with walking out the door if not for the date. Most days he'd be worked to the bone with chores. Doing anything less than perfect, on any one job, would result in Petunia scowling at him, and Vernon yelling abuse until he was purple in the face.

Dudley wasn't much better either. He was a bully to Harry, plain and simple. Dudley kept Harry friendless at school, occasionally instigating beatings on him and anyone he tried to make friends with. Dudley would also act out and make messes in the house just to get Harry into trouble; because no matter how blatantly Dudley did whatever he did, Vernon and Petunia pinned it on Harry. Dudley couldn't be anything less than Petunia's perfect little angel after all. He once even pushed Harry down the stairs. Harry had broken his arm, and had to go to hospital. Even now three years later, he still had the jagged scar on his arm.

As Harry skimmed through the day, doing all the chores he knew were on the list, Petunia sent Dudley out as she snooped around the house, hiding presents, and Vernon made some calls and went out to get a few last minute ones that capped the total number at 36 gifts, wrapped and spread throughout the house. Harry mostly ignored them, but Petunia would be up before even he rose to get them all down into the living room before Dudley got up. After all, it was going to be his birthday.

Still even as the day wound down, Harry only ate a modest dinner, and was yelled at for not washing up the plates well enough afterwards. He thought they were fine, but as was mentioned before: Nothing short of perfect in the Dursley household.

Harry ended up lying on his thin mattress, covered by a tiny blanket, in the cupboard under the stairs. He couldn't help but think about his life so far, how much his so called 'family' loathed his existence it seemed. Not for the first time, nor the last time if things had continued as normal, Harry fell asleep wishing he could have a real family who actually loved him.

No one could have foreseen what happened next though…

-=+_SA_+=-

A/N: This hopefully will be immediately followed by the first real chapter of my complete warping of Harry Potter. Assuming of course, I work out how exactly Fanfiction works. Shouldn't be too hard right?

Either way, things will really start to get going in the first real chapter! This was mostly to set the bar of how I picture Harry's treatment by the Dursleys, since you probably know how almost every author has a different take on it. Then again, how Harry was treated won't make much difference for much longer.

Obviously, this _is_ my first story, but I assume if you're bothering to read this, then you probably think it's OK, decent, or otherwise readable. Having said that, this being my first story is not an excuse if you think this is terribly written. But then this prologue is almost entirely exposition, so if you want to see what I write like when not blathering description, feel free to press next.


	2. Book 1 Chapter 1

Harry Potter and The Reality Shift

Join Harry Potter as he learns that he is a Wizard! And as he meets all new faces in a world completely different from his own. Harry is about to see the reality is not as fixed as he would have once thought. By the end of the next academic year not only will he be armed with a beginners knowledge of magical spells, but will know much more of a certain alchemical stone, and the fact that nothing is impossible.

**Chapter 1: The Day Reality Shifted**

Slowly, Harry began to stir. He needed to get up early today, he knew that. So he only pulled the blankets tighter around him for only ten second rather than a whole minute.

More blearily than usual, Harry dragged his hand across his face to brush off any errant spiders. Waking with an arachnid on your face was not pleasant, but it happened more often than not when you sleep in a cupboard under the stairs.

Then he reached a hand out of the blanket to stretch up, searching for the pull string which served as a light switch. His eyes were still closed tightly shut.

It was only after having flailed a limb for a full minute that he came to the conclusion that the pull string wasn't there. Then he realised that he should have punched the wall at least seven times while blindly searching for it. The conclusion Harry came to was that the walls of the cupboard were further away than he remembered.

Warily, Harry opened his eyes.

Nope, this was definitely _not_ Harry's cupboard. This was very unusual. As Harry sat up and took in the sight of the room, he vaguely recognised it, But he couldn't recall where from. Slowly, he rolled out of the comfortable bed and crept over to the window. Harry peeked through the gap in the curtains.

He recognised the street as Privet Drive, he could see number 3 over the road. He must have still been in number 4. It took a moment to click though.

Harry was in Dudley's second bedroom.

With that realisation, the panic began setting in. His mind ignored the lack of toys, broken or otherwise. His mind ignored how the walls were a soft green instead of a deep blue, how the wardrobe was full of clothing that would fit him and not Dudley's girth, and how the room was just generally too tidy to be Dudley's.

Harry rationalised that he'd get in trouble for sleep walking into Dudley's bed, even if it was a spare bed, and so began straightening the covers to hide the fact that he was ever sleeping there. That was when he spotted the digital alarm clock on the bedside table; happily showing the time of 7:59.

Harry froze.

You have to understand that Harry had been getting up at 6 o'clock for a good few years now, despite being 10 years old. If he didn't, he simply didn't have enough time to cook Vernon's breakfast before he got downstairs. If he didn't have Vernon's breakfast ready in time, Vernon would rant and rave and eventually deny Harry his breakfast with a red face. This would also mean he wouldn't have Dudley's breakfast ready in time, so Dudley would complain, and more yelling from Vernon would result in him being denied lunch as well by his now purple faced uncle.

This meant Harry was accustomed to getting up at 6. And seeing the clock showing 7:59, he couldn't imagine anything good happen as a result. Harry was internally screaming, his was physically unable to leave the room as he stared at the clock in silent horror. But then it got worse.

The clock turned to 8:00. The alarm went off.

Within a mere three seconds of beeping Harry had hit the alarm clock, turning it off. His action was instinctive in it's effort to hide the fact that he was inside the room. His brain was forgetting though, that to hide his presence inside a room with an alarm clock, he should leave the alarm going.

He spent only a few seconds realising _that_ before _she_ happened.

"Good morning Harry?" Said a young girl as she pushed the door to the room open. Her greeting warped into a question though; seeing him standing upright, and staring at her in bewilderment.

"Hey cousin, You okay? What's wrong?"

Harry's brain couldn't take any more. It was already overworked and over panicked. It responded to the girl calling Harry 'cousin' by force stopping all functions and rebooting.

In short, Harry fainted.

-=+_SA_+=-

It was just a short hour later that Harry was sat on the doorstep of number 4, watching the world pass by as he absorbed the apparent differences. For one, he was sitting on the doorstep of a house on Privet _Road_.

Some families were different, for example the boys at number 7 who were playing football in their front garden did not look familiar. Some people were different, like Mrs Figg who had walked past with an air of dignity that Harry had never seen before. She also kicked a cat out of the way, which directly contrasted the cat loving nature that he knew.

Physical differences were smaller, a tree here, a flower plot there. Most noticeably out here was the presence of a Motorbike on the Dursley's driveway. The biggest differences he'd seen so far were Dudley and Petunia. Dudley was no more, replaced by the slip of a girl Rose. She had his blond hair, but it was better cared for than Dudley would have. On the other hand, she shared Harry's bright emerald green eyes.

On the other hand Petunia what the same in her physical attributes, except she was much happier and more cheerful. Additionally Petunia was about seven months pregnant, but otherwise she still had her long neck and narrow eyes. Vernon had left the house before Harry woke up, so he didn't know how different his uncle might be yet. The one thing he did know though was that he himself was completely the same. He couldn't see any differences in his own body and couldn't remember thinking differently.

Oddly, though Harry didn't know this, the clothes in his cupboard were a slight bit large for him, as though he had shrunk a bit overnight.

"Hey, got you some toast"

Harry was suddenly brought out of his thoughts by a plate held in front of his face. His hand moved up to take it as Rose sat down next to him. Almost robotically, indicating how much he was thinking, he took a bite of the toast. Raspberry jam, Harry's favourite, although none of the Dursleys should have known _that_ to his knowledge.

"Are you doing any better?" She asked, worry in her voice. "Mum's already called off the zoo trip until you're feeling alright" she continued when he didn't answer immediately.

This was odd. Petunia cared enough to actually make him breakfast, even if only toast, and Dud- uh… Rose also seemed to care in ways that Dudley never would.

"Yeah, I think I'm doing better…" He slowly said once he swallowed the first mouthful of toast. "But, uh… Why is there a motorbike on the driveway?"

Rose blinked at him, somewhat perplexed; "Well, it's yours. Mum says some guy in a weird cloak showed up one day and told her to keep it for you. Sounds mysterious right?"

Harry stared at the oddity, the bike which was unusual by it's very presence. It was a black Triumph Bonneville T120, although the Triumph logo on the side had been replaced with what looked like some kind of stylised face.

"It's odd, I swear that sometimes it moves on it's own, and it's changes logo at times. Dad says I'm just imagining things though…"

Harry took another bite of toast as he continued to examine the bike. It was only a few moments after Rose stopped speaking that the headlight flashed on briefly. Harry began coughing and choking on the bread in his mouth.

"Hey, you alright?" Rose began hitting Harry's back in an attempt to help. After a few moments, Harry managed to swallow his mouthful and wave her off.

"Did…" Harry coughed once more "Did the bike just _wink_ at me?!" He asked incredulously.

"Hrrm… Yeah, I suppose it did"

Harry looked at Rose in shock. She was being entirely too calm about this, although she did say she had seen the bike move by itself too…

"Say, Rose…" Harry began, not entirely sure where he was going to go with his thoughts "I think something weird happened last night… But uh, can I ask you not to interrupt me until I'm finished?"

A dainty eyebrow rose on Rose's face, "Go on…"

And so Harry began to talk. He talked about how he didn't remember Rose, how she had replaced his overweight bully of a cousin Dudley. How Harry was called a freak, and did a lot of the chores. How Harry was held back so Dudley could be seen as better, even as Dudley out in no effort into anything but attacking Harry. Harry said how the Dursleys would never have kept a motorbike for him, how people were not acting the same at all, but how Harry himself remained unchanged.

Harry mentioned how Petunia's pregnancy, and Dudley becoming Rose were the only physical changes to a person he'd seen, but how he himself hadn't changed. And when he revealed the scar from when Dudley pushed him down the stairs, Rose confirmed that Harry as she knew him never had that particular scar. She also confirmed that Harry seemed a bit skittish.

"Any ideas?" Harry asked desperately.

Rose stayed silent as she examined all that he had said. "Maybe… You're in a parallel universe?"

"Uh, a what?"

"you know," Rose continued "the idea that there are many realities which are similar but all slightly different in one or two ways. It's obviously similar enough, because you recognise people and such, but it's different enough where it matters."

Harry looked clueless; "Is this a thing I wouldn't know about because it's weird or freaky?"

Rose nodded slowly "it could be seen that way, yeah…" Suddenly something seemed to hit her, and Rose leapt up and faced Harry "I am so sorry for what the other me did to you over all these years…"

Harry couldn't help it, he could feel a tear forming in response. He managed to blink it away though "Don't mention it, literally. Besides, even if you're right, you're not Dudley. Can't be held up for actions that you didn't do…"

Rose smiled a tiny smile at Harry. That was when the Universe started to make even less sense.

With a small _pop_, a young woman appeared on the pavement not five metres from the pair of cousins on their doorstep. As she turned to Harry, allowing them to see make out her features. She wore a long flowing robe, and her pink hair framed her heart shaped face nicely.

"Harry! Are you ready to go?" The woman paused and tilted her head to the side, squinting at him, "I thought you'd be taller…"

Harry was struck dumb, his mouth left flapping. Rose took the initiative and asked "Who are you?"

"I'm Tonks, nice to meetcha. I'm here on Dumbledore's orders too take Harry to… HQ…" Tonks starting looking around as she trailed off. Very quickly alarm ond confusion settled onto her features. Harry and Rose exchanged glances.

"Um… Who's Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

Alarm gave way to barely restrained terror as Tonks whispered, "You don't know who Dumbledore is?"

A second _pop_, and there stood a Grizzly, scarred old man. Unlike Tonks he was staring right at the three of them when he appeared. Also unlike Tonks one of his legs had been replaced by some Wooden contraption with softly glowing blue script covering it, and one of his eyes had been similarly replaced with an electric blue orb that whizzed around in every direction.

Tonks flinched quite heavily at his arrival.

"O' course he don't know who Dumbledore is. Look at him, you're _early_. Again" Even the man's voice was rough from years of use and misuse.

Even before he finished speaking Tonks was studying her watch. She paled, skin and hair, to a ghostly white, "Four books early…" She whispered.

"Which is why you should be practicing CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" His voiced raised until he shouted the last two words. And Tonks disappeared with a soft _pop_.

The man stomped over to Harry, reaching into his large coat ignoring all the outside pockets, "Don't bother asking who _I_ am, that's unimportant" He pulled an envelope out and dropped it in front of Harry, leaving him flailing to catch it. "That's your acceptance letter to Hogwarts. You're a wizard. Yes, magic is real. No, I'm not going to prove it. Yes, you'll need a wand. You'll buy it in three days around two in the afternoon"

The man's fake eye fixed onto Rose for half of a second, before whirling a second and fixing on some point above the house. "You know, you're rather lucky. If it hadn't happened, you'd have lived a rather poor life for the next seven years. Now you get to be just Harry with a loving family. Still have bigger fish to fry, but you won't have to deal with any fame you didn't earn this time around"

Rose had an eyebrow raised, only looking slightly more confused than Harry, whose face was contorted in bewilderment. Being closer to clarity, Rose managed to get her head straight quick enough to ask, "What was all that about being _books_ early?"

The man chuckled. It sounded like a belt sander was getting tangled on itself. "Don't worry too much about her. The DoM can't figure out how she does what she does. it's a mystery. It was only with their help that I managed to get back here to put her in place. Just good fortune I also thought to get Harry's letter. Still, I best be moving out. Keep your wits about you Harry, you've got an interesting few years ahead. Constant Vigilance!" The man spoke with an authority that seemed to transcend meaning.

Then he suddenly turned and stared up directly at you.

"You too! As much as real life lacks magic and wizards, never know what might happen! Better be prepared than get caught off guard… CONSTANT VIGILANCE! The lotta ya!"

And with naught but a _pop_, The man was gone.

For a moment there was silence. Harry's face slowly found it's way back to it's normal untwisted look as the pair of them thought about the ranting of the strange man.

"Well, that was odd. Especially how he yelled into the air at the end there. Makes you think that someone might be watching us" Rose mused, tapping her chin with a finger.

"I- Um… What do you think he meant? About fame and earning it myself?" Harry asked, his face still creased in thought at the new insight he had.

"No idea. But hey, you're a wizard! That's pretty cool! Might explain how you hopped to this dimension. I get the feeling you weren't expecting that though"

"No, not really…"

Rose paused for a moment to think about the situation, what she knew and apparently Harry didn't. "Tonight. I'll tell you about it tonight. About aunt Lily I mean. What I know at least. For now let's head inside, if you're feeling better then we might still be able to go to the zoo!"

As Rose practically skipped into the house, Harry followed her in. One thing was for sure though.

No matter how much he thought about it, Harry couldn't remember any aunts called Lily…

-=+_SA_+=-

As Harry entered the Living Room, where Petunia was seated on the sofa. Rose was already glancing back towards him making him feel self conscious and causing Petunia to glance at him inquisitively.

"Are you feeling better now Harry?" Petunia asked as she looked him over.

Harry if anything seemed more uncomfortable as the woman who, as he knew it, never gave him a second glance was showing genuine concern…

Rose however seemed not to notice Harry's growing discomfort. In fact she couldn't take the silence much longer.

"I wonder if I might be able to do magic…"

It was a murmured musing. But in the silence, Petunia heard it clearly enough to draw her attention to the envelope clasped in Harry's hand. Her eyes widened a slight amount and the words "It's early" slipped from her mouth.

Harry glanced at Rose, "…Uh, I'm feeling a bit better."

Petunia looked between the children, a lingering suspicion in her eyes. "Are you sure? I know you both wanted to go to the zoo, but you shouldn't push yourself."

"I'm sure!" Harry belted out almost immediately, " I mean, it's just something weird happened this morning, but I'm fine now."

"Anything else you want to tell me about?" Petunia's thin eyebrow raised itself forming a dignified face that told Harry she knew something was up. Somehow her being pregnant just seemed to amplify the effect.

Admittedly, she was thinking about the letter in his hand. He thought she knew more than that, specifically the fact that he was somehow not the Harry that she lived with the previous day.

But, despite his fidgeting, Petunia merely continued a few seconds later, "We'll discuss _that_ later. But if you're really better, it's still early enough to go to the zoo. Depending on if you feel up for it of course."

Harry just about managed to nod. Rose almost had stars in her eyes from excitement. Petunia simply smiled, a caring smile that helped Harry calm down a bit despite his apprehension regarding his aunt.

As Petunia got up to make her way towards the dining room, Harry couldn't help but let out a silent breath of relief.

-=+_SA_+=-

The zoo, it turns out, was a short drive away. This in itself wasn't terribly bad, but because the only driver in the Dursley family was Vernon, it was getting into the car that Harry finally met the man. The Vernon of Harry's past was a beefy man who appeared cheerful at first glance, but had one of the shortest fuses in human history. For every ounce of muscle though, he had another ounce of fat.

The 'new and improved' Vernon looked mostly the same, perhaps a slight amount more muscle and less fat. It wasn't his body that made him appear different though, this Vernon had a completely different disposition in that he lacked one. Rather than coming across as a big man, one's first impression was 'brick wall' and in all honesty, he acted like one too.

As one spent time with Vernon, one would find that he has a demeanour impenetrable by even the most persistent annoyances. Truthfully he only found any enjoyment in two things: Work and family, but even among his family he was stoic as ever, only a slight smile poked out when he dropped his guard.

As the four climbed into the car, Vernon moved with machine like efficiency, well he did once he helped his wife into the car. Rose was bouncing excitably, but Harry seemed to be acting as if a guillotine hung above him.

It was only once the car began to move that Rose really noticed how Harry was tensed up like a coiled cobra.

"Psst, Harry. What's your issue _now?_"

Harry barely heard the whisper, but still, he relaxed a bit. A tiny bit. "I… I don't quite know what to think about, uh… your dad"

For maybe half a second, surprise crossed Rose's face, before a light smile took it's place. "I wouldn't worry about it. he's the most emotionally untouchable guy in the world. Never seen him take a single uncalculated movement my entire life. He's nice enough on the inside too."

Contemplation crossed his face as he pondered that he _was_ probably being rather silly about Vernon.

Sighing, Harry risked a question, "What was I like before…"

Rose paused. After a couple of moments of thought with nothing but the noises of traffic she spoke even more quietly than before. "You were… shy, gentle. You always seemed to avoid other kids when you could, but you loved animals." Rose fixed her sharp eyes to his, stared into his very being as she continued, "he was a bit more outgoing, but otherwise the same. When alone he was free and he knew it. I hope he's okay where ever he is. Now you've replaced him though."

Rose looked forwards, wistfully smiling, "I guess you aren't him really. I hope he's okay, but now you're here. That means I have to take care of you I suppose…"

Harry stared at Rose, perplexed, no knowing what to say in response. The adults in front seemed to be unaware of the exchange. But Harry stayed silent for the remainder of the journey.

It was as they were leaving the car that Rose sidled up to him and whispered, "Sorry about that. You always used to tell me that I got a bit too introspective at times."

Harry turned and flashed a small smile, "don't worry about it." Even as he subconsciously realised that Rose might not be quite as accepting of the situation as she appeared...

-=+_SA_+=-

The zoo was nice, Harry enjoyed it, even if he was mostly just getting used to having a family that seemed to like him. Rose was always pretty close, whether making sure he didn't run off, or just looking out for him, Harry didn't know. In fact, other than the extremely odd circumstances, the trip was mostly just like a normal zoo trip. Until, that is, Harry entered the reptile house.

The reptile house itself was ordinary enough. lizards, snakes and all sorts were lazily draped over rocks and logs. All of them were behind a pane of glass, with heater lights hanging overhead. Like most of the zoo, excitable children were running about the place, staring into the exhibits as if the creatures would move by the intensity of their gaze.

It was as Harry walked in that he saw a particularly uninhibited brat knock on the glass of a boa constrictor exhibit. Thankfully for the poor snake, his mother grabbed him by his wrist and marched him away, scolding him all the while.

Harry slowly walked up to the glass to peer into the exhibit. The Boa lay draped over a log, soaking in the warmth, and apparently not bothered by the child's knocking.

Harry sheepishly smiled at the possibly sleeping snake, "Sorry about him. Not sure why I'm apologising really, guess it's just 'cos we're both kids."

The snake slowly swung around and stared at the odd boy who was talking.

"I imagine he doesn't mean anything by it…" Harry sighed, "I don't even know why I'm talking to you."

_"Neither do I amigo. but don't sstop now." _Came the Spanish accented voice.

Harry blinked.

"Did you just talk?"

The snake seemed to chuckle, _"It only sseemss polite to reply when ssomeone talkss to you amigo"_

Harry almost fell over. Once he recovered though, he managed to shake the bewilderment from his head and introduce himself almost flawlessly, "I'm Harry! You're a snake!"

Thankfully the snake didn't appear to be insulted, instead it began writhing about. Maybe it was insulted. or in pain. Who knew. Slowly it appeared to recover and shake it's head, _"I never imagined that talking to you upright people would be thiss funny. But then, of you never sseem to undersstand me anyway. The sservantss here have never lisstened to my requesstss for some lady company… All to the sshame. My name is Rodrigo, amigo."_

That was when Rose saw Harry in front of the massive snake exhibit.

"Hey Harry, I lost you for a minute- Oh wow! he's beautiful!"

_"Now thiss sseñorita knowss how to compliment a ssnake!" _Rodrigo hissed as he lifted himself up to properly look at the cousins.

"Hello there, this guy must be the most active snake in this place" Rodrigo drooped a bit, _"That'ss a real sshame. Looks like just you can understand me amigo."_

"Yeah, it appears so…" Harry said.

Rose spun to Harry and stared. "Did you just hiss?"

"Uh, no?"

Rodrigo turned back to Harry, a smirk almost visible on his face, _"I'm ssorry to ssay thiss amigo, but yess you are. Only reasson I sstarted talking back wass that you were sspeaking ssnake-tongue."_

"I actually- What?" Harry's face warped into confusion as he stared at Rodrigo.

"Don't tell me you can actually understand him" Rose tentatively asked.

Harry just nodded in shock.

"That's pretty cool! I wonder if this guy wants out or something…"

_"Not a chance sseñorita. I like the warmth of thiss lamp far too much to brave the cold Britissh weather."_

Harry turned to Rose and stated, "Apparently, he's rather stay there to avoid the cold. But he did say earlier he'd like more lady company"

As it was, Harry had a straight face while he spoke. That was enough to convince Rose who still freshly had the idea that magic was real in her head. Having said that, if Harry was much older he might have held back the 'lady company' comment. If Rose was much older she might have flushed in embarrassment at the 'lady company comment'. If they were both older, Harry would probably have been slapped, causing Rodrigo much amusement. Alas, they were both ten years old, and Rodrigo didn't have any more amusement there.

"Fair enough, I guess since he's a snake, it makes sense that he'd avoid the cold. Anyway, Petunia wants us back to have lunch."

"Alright then, just let me say goodbye, _See you around Rodrigo, or not. Hope you get your lady company though!"_ Harry waved as he walked away with Rose while Rodrigo chuckled to himself and began lounging again.

'One day', he pondered, 'I might just…'

Only a few minutes later, Harry was explaining how the Boa Constrictor was called Rodrigo, while the Dursleys, and Harry, ate a lunch of McDonalds. Rose happily listening while Petunia listened on, amused at the children's imagination.

-=+_SA_+=-

It was about 6h00 that the Vernon pulled back into number 4 Privet Road. Harry followed Petunia through into the kitchen and asked to help make dinner. It was a pleasantly surprised Petunia that said yes. It was when the food was almost ready that she brought it up.

"I see you picked up a letter somewhere" she said as she stirred the sauce of the simple curry being cooked.

Harry paused in taking the plates out of the cupboard, "Yeah"

Petunia smiled wistfully as she kept stirring, "You should have received it on your birthday truth be told. I always wondered if maybe Rose might be magical too. I suppose we'll find out on her birthday. Still, I'll see if I can contact someone to help get you to Diagon Alley to buy your supplies."

Harry wordlessly nodded, confused as he tried to understand what his aunt was talking about.

It was after a quiet, but happy meal that Rose retreated with Harry into his room. She sat on the chair in front of the desk as Harry lay on his bed. they stayed like that for a good ten minutes, one staring at the other who had closed his eyes.

"I guess I'll start from the top then…" Rose began.

Harry opened his eyes, but remained lying.

"Even from when we were little, mum always told us about her sister, aunt Lily. Your mother." Harry shot up and stared right back at Rose. Their eyes met as Harry silently implored she continue.

"She was a witch. I mean, she was magical, could cast spells. Like you're a wizard."

Rose turned and stared out the window, "Mum always said that she wished she was magical too. But she was still able to see the wonders of magic by being Lily's sis. She always said you'd go to Hogwarts and make your mum proud. She never hid that you were magical, I'm just not sure dad knows. He probably does."

"Do you know where she is?" There was a desperation in Harry's voice that surprised Rose for a second, before she frowned.

"No… All I know is what she is. I'm not sure mum knows either. Never told either of us when we asked before. It seems like she just…disappeared around nine years ago…"

Harry slumped back down onto his bed, put out. Silence lingered for a while before Harry broke it once more. "Do you think me talking to snakes is magical?"

Rose thought for half a second, "Probably. It's odd how you can only talk to snakes. I'll admit though, it was fun running around to see if you could talk to anything else."

Harry had a small smile now. "Maybe it's a species specific thing. I can talk to snakes, another wizard to birds or dogs or something.

"Could be." Rose mused. Suddenly a grin split her face, "I suppose you'll be able to find out soon enough!"

Harry's smile grew as he replied, "Yeah. Soon."

The two continued to stay there, enjoying each others company before Petunia came up to tell them to get ready for bed. Even as Harry curled up into his comfortable bed, he marveled at how quickly he came to trust Rose, and how much love Petunia showed him here.

Soon after he fell asleep, an engine started up, and the sound of a motor bike driving off echoed through the late night air. It returned an hour or so later, as a motor bike pulled back into the Dursley's drive, and it's rider got off and looked up at Harry's window…

-=+_SA_+=-

A/N: I only started putting Harry's parseltongue in italics once he was aware he was hissing. All of his speech with Rodrigo the snake before then was also hissed, but no one was close enough to hear it.


	3. Book 1 Chapter 2

Harry Potter and The Reality Shift

Join Harry Potter as he learns that he is a Wizard! And as he meets all new faces in a world completely different from his own. Harry is about to see the reality is not as fixed as he would have once thought. By the end of the next academic year not only will he be armed with a beginners knowledge of magical spells, but will know much more of a certain alchemical stone, and the fact that nothing is impossible.

**Chapter 2: Time For a Shopping Trip Methinks.**

It was a very tired Harry Potter who found himself flailing into wakefulness by way of a buzzing alarm. He would swear that he almost fell out of his bed in panic while trying to turn the damned thing off. Of course, some young people exaggerate such things, but we may never know if he really did do that.

However, when Rose walked into his room five minutes later, it is worth noting that Harry was tangled in his duvet on the floor. On the opposite side of his bed from his alarm. While it was still buzzing.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

"Harry, stop flailing. You're making it worse" Rose said as she turned off the alarm.

Harry sheepishly stilled for a few seconds before slowly worming his way out of the duvet. This morning he had been awoken by his alarm, rather than simply rising just before it went off. Momentarily he had forgotten that there was in fact meant to be an alarm there, and by the time he had realised that, he was firmly entangled.

The two sat there, or stood in Rose's case, in silence for a bit before Harry suddenly asked a question:

"Do you know how we're going to buy all this magical stuff on that list I got?"

Rose smirked, even as he could see deep thought in her eyes, "No idea. Mum always said you were a wizard, but she never really expanded on it much… Never said where wizards hang out."

"I guess that makes sense" Harry mused, "I wonder if they'll send someone to help me get the stuff then…"

"I don't know…"

This silence lasted a bit longer.

"Hey, Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"I have to wonder, maybe there'll be some way for you to find out how you got here in the Magical world. They gotta have books and libraries, right?" Rose said, stroking her chin in thought.

"I guess so, It's worth looking into at least. But we are still assuming that it's by magic I got here" Harry pointed out.

Rose nodded, "That is true… I know!" She said as she slammed on hand into the other, "I'll keep an eye out too, do some searching up on the internet, read up on Quantum Mechanics…"

"Quantative what?" Harry asked, looking most befuddled

"Oh, it's like some crazy mumbo jumbo science involving knocking on wood or something…"

Harry stared disbelievingly for a second before perking up, "Hey, can you hear that?"

Rose blinked, "What? Oh! The voices, yeah I think mum has a visitor. No idea who though, I don't recognise the voice… Wanna find out who it is?" Rose's face grew a mischievous smile as she asked the question.

Harry started, barely even registering as Rose dashed out of the room once more leaving him scrambling to catch up. He rushed after her only to screech to a halt at the top of the stairs where Rose had begun descending. Very slowly. And quietly. Harry rolled his eyes as he followed down after.

As they descended they could make out what was being said.

"Well, it sounds like someone is moving upstairs, do you still take milk in your tea?"

"No, I take my tea black with sugar nowadays. Reflects me better, has my name and my sweet disposition."

"Really?"

"Of course! What, is it that odd? Everyone always comments when I say how I have my tea"

"Well, I can't judge really, both times this has happened, I've had cravings for maple syrup in my tea. But tell me, why did you really come back?"

"Oh, well… You see, a little birdy told me that Harry got his letter early so…"

"…news travels fast these days. Do you two want breakfast?"

The two cousins froze half way down the hall. There was silence for about thirty seconds before Rose just walked straight in with a "Yes please mum" This left Harry feeling slightly out of place as he shuffled in cautiously behind her and nodded his desire for breakfast.

The two of them sat down at the table across from the odd stranger who was now sipping at his black tea. He wore a smart black suit with a striped navy shirt, and had a ruggedly angled face. His black hair was pulled up into a short tail, leaving the rest of his face untouched by hair except for some light stubble. His grey eyes shined with hidden humour, as if he saw a joke that he had yet to tell.

While Petunia went to get out some bowls to put cereal into, Harry couldn't hold in his question anymore, "Is that tea really black with sugar?"

"Of course it is! I don't ever joke about tea" The man said in his smooth voice.

"Surely you're not serious" Rose blurted out.

Suddenly he man's eye's began shining with the ferocity of a supernova as he replied:

"I am Sirius, and don't call me Shirley!"

"Sirius, be nice, they're only eleven years old" Petunia's voice came flowing through with her as she brought in two bowls of Cheerios.

"Hey! He isn't eleven yet, I'm the only eleven year old here!"

Harry took on a slightly betrayed face for a second before cracking into giggles. This had the unfortunate flaw of making it significantly harder to eat cereal.

Sirius smirked as he flung one arm wide, "Nice to meet you kiddos, My name is Sirius Black! I'm technically Harry's Godfather, but I wasn't in a position to look after a child, so Petunia volunteered… But I am here because I hear that Harry here got a letter… So Harry did you hear what I heard correctly? And did I hear correctly?"

The two cousins began giggling again. Unfortunately all the giggling had made a number of spillages of milk onto the table and onto pyjamas. As a result Petunia was glaring at Sirius quite heavily. Sirius ignored her for the most part as he continued.

"Now, of course, before you actually go to Hogwarts, you'll need to accept the letter. And then you'll need to buy supplies. That's the bit I can help with, the supplies. If I have the Lady's permission, I'll take one or both of you to get your things today, if you want to go that is."

Harry suddenly stopped giggling and eating even as Petunia forged on, "Of course he wants to go, he's been looking forwards to this since he first heard about magic."

Rose glanced at Harry. Harry slowly swallowed the mouthful of cereal. Sirius just watched Harry's silent face as he paused in thought. Rose tilted her head in question, and Harry shook his head minutely before turning to the adults.

"Mum went to Hogwarts right? Dad too?"

"Yup, both of them. it's where they met" Sirius confirmed.

"Then I'll go to Hogwarts." Harry said with certainty as he continued eating cereal.

-=+_SA_+=-

It was a good hour later that Harry, Rose and Sirius left the house. Petunia ended up chasing them into clothes so she could wash the dirty pyjamas they ate breakfast in. Sirius immediately turned to the bike on the driveway and began to mount it, "Come on you two. You can both fit in the sidecar."

Truthfully they could, and Harry could see that. What made him pause though was a combination of three things. Firstly, the sidecar wasn't there yesterday. That was odd, but not inexplicable.

Secondly, Sirius was wearing a helmet now. But there wasn't anywhere he could have picked it up from. Still, Sirius was probably a wizard too, so that's also excusable.

The third point was more a triviality than anything else. But as trivialities do, this one really bugged the ten year old. "When did the bike logo change?"

Rose paused, halfway into the sidecar. "It does that all the time, you know that, now let's go before Mum changes her mind about me going."

Harry conceded, and climbed into the sidecar next to Rose. Sirius pointed them to the helmets by their feet to put on, although there still wasn't space for the one he was wearing himself. Harry couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, this bike was different from the other one.

Once they were moving though, he put it out of mind. Although he was intrigued by Sirius' choice in music. As the three drove towards Central London in what Petunia would certainly have called a death trap, Sirius was singing along to a song about Autobots or Decpticons Rolling out, and something about Michael Bay…

It was surprisingly quickly that the bike pulled to a stop outside a seedy looking pub called the Leaky Cauldron. As the two preteens clambered out of their sidecar, they missed Sirius waving his wand over the bike while suddenly appearing to change clothes. He know wore a long flowing robe with a deep hood, showing some silvery strands of hair poking out past his shadowed face.

"Alright then. Harry, this is the Leaky Cauldron a wizarding pub, we need to go inside." Sirius said in a slightly wheezy voice that caused the kids to turn and stare at him.

"Uh, Sirius, when did you change?" Harry asked.

"Shushushush! Don't call me Sirius here, just call me… Mister White. And I can't exactly look like myself can I? I'm a fugitive after all."

Harry started at that, and glanced to Rose who appeared to be taking it all in stride.

"Follow me!" Ordered Sirius as he stomped into the pub, leaving the two children following behind.

"How come you seem to be expecting that?" Harry whispered to Rose as they walked in. They both paused at the sights around them, two dozen men and women both wearing a similar kind of robe to what Sirius had suddenly donned. Some were sat at tables, some at the bar. Some of the people were eating or drinking odd looking meals and drinks. Most of them were chatting, and a couple glanced at the pair of kids in curiosity before turning back to what they were doing. They almost missed Sirius' hooded figure walking straight for a back door; It certainly didn't help that the enter establishment was rather poorly lit with dim candles here and there.

It took a while for Rose to respond as they warily walked through the pub towards the back door. "Mum may have warned me. He acts like he's a wanted man, but he isn't really. She doesn't know why. He's always in disguises in public apparently. I couldn't say with Siri- Ah, Mister White right there, didn't want to be rude." Rose eventually whispered back.

The two of them followed Sirius out into what looked like a short alley with only a dead end. The two exchanged looks before Noticing that Sirius seemed to be counting something.

"Seven, eleven. It's been too long, I think it's that one." He murmured, poking a brick with his wand and twisting it. "No, not that one. Ah, That's it, seven and thirteen, not eleven!" He poked two bricks up, and twisted his wand again. This time a grinding noise began and the wall split in two, swinging open like a pair of doors.

Suddenly, Harry and Rose felt like they could see the entire shopping alley as Sirius stepped to the side. "Welcome to Diagon Alley!" Sirius declared in his fake winded voice.

The Alley was bustling with people all over. As far as the kids could see there were more people wearing robes and cloaks like inside the pub. These people were rushing too and from shops all over the place. Unlike the rest of London though, the entire street looked like it had come from some kind of story book. The buildings were quite old and worn, but the atmosphere was electric with energy, only made more obvious by what was outside the various shops down the street.

Some shops had massive cauldrons outside, one looked like a bookshop from the massive sign, shaped like a book, that hung above the doorway. But by far the most imposing building was at the far end of the shopping alley. Despite the distance, it was clearly made of towering marble with large golden lettering above the doorway. They couldn't quite make it out from this distance though.

"Diagon Alley," repeated Sirius, shaking them from their reverie. "The premier, and only major magical shopping district of the country. You'll find everything from potions ingredients to wands here. Each branching alleyway has it's own set of shops and reputations, but for the most part everything you might need is in the main street."

The two did indeed notice that some of the people were wandering into and out of the gaps between shops here and there. Although each alley tended to have people look and act differently. Some, people seemed to treat as a natural extension of the main street, while others had only patrons who wrapped themselves up in heavy cloaks and deep hoods, clearly trying to avoid being recognised as they slipped towards their destination.

"But before we buy anything, we'll need some money. Follow me!" Sirius said as he strode directly down the middle of the crowd towards the far end of the street.

As the pair followed, they couldn't help but gaze around at the mystical sights around them. The pet shop _Magical Menagerie_ with it's abundance of owls and script announcing it's name on a sign floating overhead. The admittedly classy looking wizard who was beckoning his shopping after him with one hand as he directed a teaspoon to stir his floating tea with the other. And even the giant of a man standing by one of the alleyways, arguing with someone barely taller than the kids, but clearly much older.

"I imagine we'll stop there later" Harry said, nodding towards Ollivanders, _seller of the finest wands since 1733_, so said the sign.

Rose nodded as she stared up at the towering marble building, the golden writing suddenly very visible: _Gringotts._ They slowly crept up the steps towards Sirius who had stopped a distance short of the creatures standing guard by the grandiose doors.

"Well, this is Gringotts. The biggest wizarding bank this side of Europe." Sirius said with a wistful smile. "Inside here, you'll be able to withdraw from the money left for you by your parents. Wizards use three coins, bronze Knuts, silver Sickles, and gold Galleons. Just remember there are 29 Knuts in a Sickle, and 17 Sickles in a Galleon."

Harry peered into the grand hall for a few seconds before looking down at the inscription on the floor:

_Here inside Gringotts halls,_

_Lays your wealth of years gone by._

_But beware the threat befalls,_

_Those fools who may think to try._

_For deep inside our darkened mines,_

_Our traps lay, and monsters dine._

_And beneath our pleasant faces too,_

_Lay deadly teeth of vengeful truth._

Harry shivered. He didn't think much of the poetry, and thought the meaning was too deep underneath the rhymes, but he still felt a deep meaning underneath the words he had just read.

Rose however skipped straight past the guards, oblivious to the enchanted words beneath her feet and began staring at the hall in awe. The walls appeared to be hewn from a solid chunk of marble, which melted further in into the rough stone of carved tunnels. The ceiling was filled with grand swathes of glass that let in all the natural light of day, and the walls were covered in what looked almost like cages, holding brightly glowing balls of pure white light.

The first hall here was filled with dozens of desks, manned by the same creatures as the guards outside. Each desk had a number engraved upon it, and floating beacons whizzed from the side of the room to float above the desks without customers until the seats were filled. Behind them, more armoured goblins watched as their human customers posted forms through rectangular holes in the wall, and caught the bags of money that dropped out.

Sirius had led Harry and Rose into a queue of people which was slowly being dispersed to the various desks about the hall by another creature, this one dressed as some sort of butler.

"Hey, S- uh, Mister White?" Harry said, poking the man who had brought them here, "Do you know how much they'll have left me?"

Sirius smiled a friendly grin as he answered, "They left plenty for you to get through Hogwarts, don't worry. And I'm sure there will be more than enough for the next few years afterwards too."

"Perks to desk 17 please" said the squeaky voice of the goblin in front of the queue. Harry didn't have long to think on it as the girl in front of them walked away, her curled blonde hair bouncing, leaving Harry facing a Goblin for the first time. They were short creatures, only slightly taller than himself, without hair and with heavily scrunched up skin. Their ears pointed sharply up while their noses were only slightly less sharp as they pointed forwards. Their eyes were small and beady, and their hands were rough, with sharp pointed claws on their fingers. Their dress was much more like that of the upper class gentlemen of the Victorian era, wearing what appeared to be tailored suits.

It was when Harry had just finished examining him that the goblin in front of them smiled a disarming smile and squeaked, "Potter to desk 23 please."

Harry was pushed along by Sirius who took him and Rose to a desk with one of the flashing beacons hovering above. As Harry sat down, it sped away to another table.

"How may I help you today Mister potter?" The goblin sat on the other side of the desk chirped in it's high pitched voice.

Harry winced at the disparity between the sight of the creature before him and the kindly tone of the voice in his ears before he minutely shook his head and spoke. "Can I make a withdrawal from my account please?"

"And how much would you like to withdraw sir?" The goblin asked with an oddly kind voice as it took out a form from the desk and began filling it out.

Harry looked up to Sirius, who leant down and said "about fifty Galleons" into his ear.

"Fifty Galleons please" Harry repeated. The goblin filled in one last gap in the form before stamping it and handing it over.

"Here you are, please insert this form into the wall. Thank you for your patronage, and have a nice day!" Harry took the form and turned to follow Sirius towards the bank's entrance. As he did so the goblin pressed a rune on the desk and one of the beacons sped back over the desk as they walked away.

It was when Sirius drifted to the left of the doors that he began to explain, "They scan and magically check your identity in the queue, before you do your business. Afterwards, they take any deposit and give you a form or receipt. You take the forms to these holes here," He pointed to a number of odd holes in the wall, "place the form into the rectangular hole and the amount of money requested drops from the circular one. be ready to catch it."

Harry nodded rather stiffly and walked over to one of the holes. He quickly deposited the form into the slot that Sirius pointed out and put his hands out to catch something. The bag that came out was surprisingly light considering it contained gold coinage. However, Harry wasn't sure that his hands weren't bruised from the impact of the bag as he caught it.

In Harry's opinion, they couldn't have left the bank fast enough. The goblins sunny demeanour was too far different from their rather unappealing appearance, and the large gap unnerved him somewhat. As the young cousins followed Sirius away from the bank they exchanged glances and began to talk in murmured whispers.

"Those things were far too weird…" Harry started.

"I know, but on the plus side that building was incredible…"

"I could barely take it in, I was… I don't know, I felt like I was frozen by the inscription on the floor."

Rose raised an eyebrow, "Why were you looking down? The most awe inspiring parts of the building were all above eye level."

"I don't know, I… I felt sort of drawn to look down until I saw the words…" 

"That's odd. And disturbing. Maybe we should ask Siri- I mean, Mister White." Rose suggested.

"Alright! First stop is Ollivanders. A wand is the most important tool of a wizard after all" Sirius declared as they approached the shop front.

Just as they walked in, a curly blonde haired and brown eyed girl walked out with what looked like her parents. "Okay, Sally. Let's go look at the books now…" And Harry found himself inside a warmly lit workshop, filled with rows of shelves behind a counter. The shop front was sparsely furnished with a couple of chairs around the edge of the room and more in front of the counter itself. There were a few pictures and diagrams hung on the walls to look at though.

The shopkeeper looked up as Harry laid eyes upon him, and a smile lit up his face. "Ah, another customer." He looked to be on the older side of middle age, with misty grey eyes and a mess of silvery hair. "They do come thick and fast these days. Who might you two be?"

Harry stepped forwards slightly, "Uh, Harry Potter sir, and this is Rose" He said as the man approached the counter to lean over towards them.

"Ah, yes. Harry Potter, Son of Lily and James?" Harry nodded in response. " Yes, that is good. I was expecting you soon. Why don't you take a seat here," The man continued, pointing at the chair in front of them.

As they sat down and Sirius stepped back to examine the pictures on the walls, he continued: "My name is Ollivander. I'm a wand maker, and I'll need to ask a few questions to find your match. First off, what month were you born?"

"Uh, July," Harry responded.

"Good, good. Favourite colour?"

Harry raised an eyebrow, "Green."

"How would you describe yourself in a single word?"

Harry paused for a moment. "Perseverance" he said, causing Rose to swing her head towards him, eyes momentarily wide.

"Left-handed or right?"

"Right"

"Hang on, but you're left-handed!" Rose interrupted.

"No, I'm definitely right-handed." Harry turned to look Rose in the eye, she shook off the thought and stayed silent.

"How do you open your birthday presents? Tear or unfold?"

"Uhm, unfold."

"Star Wars, or Star Trek?"

"Uh, Star Trek?" By this point Rose was glaring suspiciously at Ollivander.

"And if you had to choose between fighting a dozen chicken sized horse, or one horse sized chicken?"

Harry screwed up his face in thought, "The horses."

"Are you sure that's a necessary question?" Rose asked, looking quite suspicious

Ollivander smiled as he stood up and stretched, "Not at all sure, but it's always worth asking" He said as he walked back into the rows of shelves. "Did you know that you were _almost_ famous Harry?" His voice drifted forth.

Harry paused and glanced towards Sirius, "I- uh, I didn't, no."

"Don't worry, that wasn't an important question either. Probably" Came the Ollivander's voice. "There was a rumour you see, about ten years ago. There was an evil wizard trying to take over when suddenly he fell silent and his forces stopped attacking. Rumour goes that you were somehow involved, despite your very young age."

Harry glanced over to Rose.

"First I've heard of it" she murmured with a shrug.

When Harry looked back to Sirius he began shuffling about uncomfortably as he scrutinised an diagram of a wand at various stages of construction.

"Yes," Continued Ollivander, who was audibly rifling through the shelves, searching for something as he spoke. "Rumour has it he attacked your family that Halloween, but didn't survive. Of course; no one knows for sure, and if they know something- Ah ha! I found it…" The loud noise of moving boxes stopped, and Ollivander stepped out of the rows again to put a small case onto the counter. "If someone knows something, they've kept their mouths shut. Those were dark times Mister Potter. Still the rumours of years gone by do tend to float up occasionally. Here you are" Ollivander pushed the long thin box across the counter towards Harry and opened it up.

Inside lay an engraved stick, quite ordinary to the eyes of any ordinary person, but Harry was still for a moment. He carefully reached out to take hold of it, only to be batted away from the polished rod by Ollivanders hand. "Tut tut mister Potter. Can't have you bonding with it before you pay for it. Five galleons please."

Ollivander held out his hand with a smirk as Harry visibly recoiled in shock, before pulling out the bag of galleons he had in his pocket. He counted out five galleons before Rose cut in, "How do we know the wand will work for him?"

Ollivander chuckled, "A sharp one you have with you mister Potter. Shame she lacks the gift of magic, truly," He shook his head in apparent disappointment before continuing; "This wand is the one which fits Harry; it only takes a few questions for me to feel the best match in the shop. This wand particular wand is 13 inches long, made of hornbeam wood and a unicorn tail hair," Ollivander chuckled again, before nodding at Harry as he went on, "and I could feel the match between the two of them before I'd even finished asking the questions. If nothing else I could tell just from how the wand captivated him that it was his to wield."

Harry glanced at Rose again. Rose shrugged, but when Harry turned to Sirius, he saw him nodding minutely. He placed the five Galleons onto the counter before carefully removing the wand from it's box. As soon as he touched hand to wood, the air seemed to thicken. He wasn't in a shop any more, he wasn't even with anyone. He was alone with the wand in an endless void. Instinctually, he waved the hornbeam__wand. a burst of warmth shot through him, light seemed to dance around him, and the air whipped about in a tight twisting funnel. And then it was over, he was back in the shop with his cousin and Sirius.

Ollivander smirked as he let loose one last comment, "Interesting wood, Hornbeam. My own wand is made of the same wood. It tends to choose those who end up having a single vision to aim for. More than that, you'll quickly find that this wand will attune itself to your magic such that no one else would even be able to cast the simplest of spells with it. Hornbeam wands truly are remarkable, they have a sort of… sentience to them. Have a pleasant day, and thank you for your patronage Mr Potter."

-=+_SA_+=-

Half an hour later, Harry was still in a bit of a daze. Just as well he'd been put into Madam Malkin's Robe Store to get outfitted with the school uniforms really. It was as his eyes regained some clarity that Rose spoke up.

"Oh, you're finally back huh?"

Harry jumped slightly, only to be attacked by a needle holding some cloth in place over his body. "Ouch, what? What do you mean?"

"Oh, just how you zoned out when we left Ollivanders. That wand must be something, huh?" Rose snorted.

Harry blinked. "Uh, yeah. I think so. It was sort of… otherworldly. What was that about me being left-handed though?"

"It's just that I forgot, okay? I temporarily forgot that it was a different you that was let-handed." Rose glanced away in embarrassment, just as the door swung open and in bobbed a young girl with short copper hair and a deceptively soft face. She was followed in by a stern faced woman with greying hair.

"Okay Susan, you stand on the stool there while I find Madam Malkin" The woman said as she walked deeper into the shop past lines of robes and mannequins.

Susan didn't do as she said and instead walked over to rose and put out her hand, "I'm Susan Bones, who are you two?"

"Uh, I'm Rose, and that's Harry" Rose replied as she shook the offered hand.

Susan grinned as she jumped back and hopped onto the second stool. "I'd shake your hand too Harry, but I fear a might leave you covered in cuts from all the needles. I've been here before."

"ah, thank you for that. Are you going to Hogwarts too?" Harry asked.

"Of course! I'll be in Gryffindor most likely. But where ever I end up I want to be a beater on the Quidditch team," Susan declared quite proudly. "Any idea which house you'll go into?"

Harry glanced down to Rose before responding, "No idea, I don't know about the houses."

"And I won't be at Hogwarts unfortunately." Rose added.

"Ah, that's a shame…" Susan grimaced. "But no matter, as long as you keep in contact with Harry we can work out how to be friends long distance right?"

Harry reeled in shock at how forward the girl was being. Then he grimaced as he was pricked by another three needles.

"Ah, sorry about that dear, I left you standing there didn't I," Madam Malkin apologised as she returned from the back of the store. "I really need to hire a new assistant to help with the measuring."

Harry smiled as the seamstress slowly un pinned the cloth from his body. He was getting rather stiff.

"Of course, I wouldn't let him forget me." Rose said to Susan with a sideways glance to Harry.

"Good, and I wouldn't worry about the houses. If no one tells you by the Express then I'll tell you then." Susan said with a grin.

"Right then deary, you're all done. Come back in about three hours and you should be able to pick up the robes." Madam Malkin said as she removed the last fabrics and patted him on the shoulder.

"Thanks" Harry said with a smile, "bye, Susan. talk to you later!" He went over to the door and opened it only for blond curls to walk in before he could leave.

"Sally! Hi again!" called Susan as he left.

"So, where is Mister White then?" Harry asked Rose who was glancing about sporadically.

"I think he's picking up a trunk for you or something. But next stop is probably the book store, Flourish and Blotts he said" Rose replied, unable to recognise anyone in the crowds around them.

"Ah there you two are," Said a voice in a distinguished royal accent. The two spun to see a man in a forest green robe, with sandy brown hair, but the same grey eyes. "It's me, Mister Hound. I believe books was next on the list yes?"

"Mister Hound?" Rose said, voice full of suspicion.

Sirius leant forwards as he whispered, "well I can't exactly keep the same name when I change my outfit now, can I?" He stood up and turned to Harry as he continued; "Ah, Harry my boy. I have a trunk for you, got quite the good deal on it too!"

Harry was convinced, even though he was searching Sirius up and down trying to find the trunk in question to no avail.

"Flourish and Blotts is this way!" Declared Sirius as he strode away.

"Hey Mister White- I mean Hound, Slow down!"

-=+_SA_+=-

Harry and Rose looked about the shop floor. The books seemed to extend almost forever on bookshelves that appeared to stretch far higher than the building looked from outside. But there was no sign of Sirius anywhere, despite the small amount of floor space. Harry did notice the same girl with the curly blond hair was carrying a growing stack of books from shelf to shelf, picking up more books as she went. He suddenly had a feeling of déjà vu…

"Where did he go?" Rose asked out of sheer disbelief.

"I don't know, who?" Broke in a new voice. Harry and Rose turned to see a boy with silky white-blond hair and pale grey eyes. He was dressed in a gilded robe that looked just on the classy side of expensive.

"Ah, a friend of ours. Mister, uh, Hound. He's escorting us round Diagon Alley to get my school supplies" Harry said while sticking out a hand, "Harry Potter."

"Draco Malfoy" the boy responded, smiling as he shook Harry's hand. "I take it your looking for first year books then. I already have mine, I was just looking to see if there was anything interesting to buy. Nothing yet though…"

"Yeah" Rose replied, "Just for him though. No idea how we're going to find the books in this place though…"

"Oh, you're not going to Hogwarts?" Draco asked.

"No, I'm just here for the experience really," Rose said, looking up at the unending rows of shelving. "Quite an experience so far…"

"Ah, you must be a non-magical then. Why don't you two come with me, I'll show you where all the books are. Keep an eye out for anything you might want though, I doubt you'll be able to come back on the regular, either of you." Draco let loose a friendly smile as he led them through the shelves.

"So, do you know which house you'll go to?" Harry asked.

"Not sure" Draco said as he gave a textbook to Harry, "I don't like to assume. They often say you are the worst judge of yourself."

"Who is they?" Rose asked, turning from a particularly intriguing book called _Mirrors and Parallels: More than we could ever know_.

"My parents mostly. They insist That I shouldn't decide which house I fit before I get there, otherwise the sorting will take longer, and you might be disappointed" Draco explained as he dropped another couple of books onto the pile and led them around another corner.

"I guess that could be true…" murmured Harry. In truth he had hoped to learn a bit more about the houses by asking, but Draco seemed to keep his mouth shut. "What book are you looking at there, Rose?"

"Oh, just a book of rumours and curses that even the author thinks might not be real ones. Seems odd to write a book about that." Rose said as she dodged around the blond girl to put the book back on the shelf.

"I think this is the last one" smiled Draco as he dropped a final book onto the pile. "You see anything you wanted to buy?" He asked Rose, who coughed as she pointed to _Mirrors and Parallels _in the stack.

"Thanks for your help, don't know how long it would have taken without you." Harry said with a grin, as he walked to the counter.

"No problem Harry. It's a shame that your guide disappeared," Draco said with a smile, "but glad I could help."

"What do you mean disappeared?" said Sirius' cultured voice as he began helping Harry place the stack onto the counter. "I led them here, and then went to buy the rest of Harry's supplies! As if I would simply abandon them? Poppy cock."

"Ah, my mistake do forgive me Mister. I'll see you at Hogwarts Harry, and nice meeting you Rose" said Draco as he went to leave, "Have a nice day"

Harry smiled and waved before handing over the 14 Galleons requested by the clerk. He turned to Sirius who was now lowering the books into a chest that had apparently appeared with their guide.

"Yes, I do apologise if it seemed I had left you behind, but I thought it best to take care of that then. after these books, we only have to buy your potions ingredients. Divide and conquer and all that. Shall we get some lunch after that?" Sirius said as he closed the lid of the chest with a flourish and picked it up by the handle that was handily attached to one end. Apparently this trunk had wheels for easier transportation.

"I suppose so" Harry said, as they left the store. Harry noticed that the girl with the blond curls was still collecting far more books than he had bought. He wondered what books she was carrying…

-=+_SA_+=-

The trip to the apothecary was comparatively uneventful. The place smelt oddly like a bottle of mixed herbs, and had numerous sealed jars and hanging dried animals and leafy vegetables lining the walls. Harry did have a recurring feeling of déjà vu when he saw the girl in front of them in the queue, a small girl with blond curly hair. In the end though he spent most of the time there examining the more unusual ingredients with Rose, like unicorn horns and Lethe river water. He was rather curious about that, because last he remembered, he was sure the Lethe river was something of Greek mythology, right? Still, he pushed over the required money once Sirius had ordered a standard first year potions kit.

And now here they were, in the Leaky Cauldron eating lunch. Sirius had ordered a strange turquoise coloured soup that Harry didn't catch the name of. Harry and Rose however just stuck to chicken sandwiches, which where remarkably good.

"Si- ah, Mister Hound, what was that rumour that Ollivander was going on about?" 

Sirius' face dropped into a serious expression, and he spoke in quiet whispers, "When you were born, there was a dark wizard running around, gunning for control over all of Britain. His name was _Voldemort_, And so the rumours go; He fell the night that someone attacked the Potter household. Your parents were out, and a friend was acting as a baby sitter. He died in the attack as well."

"The news reported that the Dark Lord himself had attacked the house, killed our friend and died trying to kill you. The paper painted you as a hero despite being a baby, but the wizarding world all simply yelled the paper down. No one saw what happened that night, and no man publicly said they believed the News' story. Within a week the entire thing was brushed over, but somehow the rumour that you were responsible somehow keeps popping up. It's all very odd. I suggest you forget about it. Don't bring it up unless someone brings it up to you. And don't let the theory go to your head. Whatever happened was almost certainly Peter's doing."

"Peter?" Rose asked between bites.

Sirius sipped another spoon of soup before he continued, "Peter Pettigrew, the friend who was babysitting you. I don't know how but I firmly believe that he was the one who took down whoever attacked, even as he died. But no one ever found any bodies, only a solitary pile of ashes."

Harry chewed on his sandwich in thought. In the barely lit room where they ate, he tried to picture what it might have been like in his head. But he only remembered nightmares of a brief flash of green and a woman's scream…

-=+_SA_+=-

A/N: Thanks for reading guys. Okay, so here we see the first of the changes I made. And a few hints of the past, and some foreshadowing of what is to come…

With any luck, this time I won't take four months to get the next chapter done… :3

Also, that song that Sirius had on during the bike ride can be found here: www_dot_escapistmagazine_dot_com/videos/view/miracle-of-sound/6323-Roll-Out-Transformers


	4. Book 1 Chapter 3

Harry Potter and The Reality Shift

Join Harry Potter as he learns that he is a Wizard! And as he meets all new faces in a world completely different from his own. Harry is about to see the reality is not as fixed as he would have once thought. By the end of the next academic year not only will he be armed with a beginners knowledge of magical spells, but will know much more of a certain alchemical stone, and the fact that nothing is impossible.

**Chapter 3: A Journey To Meet With Destiny**

All too quickly, it was the night before Harry had to leave for Hogwarts. He'd stored all of his clothes inside his chest, as well as all of his books and supplies. Sirius had been around on occasion since the trip to Diagon, but for the most part he'd made himself scarce. On the other hand, Rose seemed to be trying to make up for the eleven years of his life that she'd missed out on. In her defence, she was the only one who knew Harry wasn't the same Harry.

As Harry lay in his room, staring at the ceiling, he knew that sleep wouldn't come easily tonight. Everywhere he looked, something reminded him that he was about to leave a family that cared for an entirely unknown world full of unknown people.

Looking left, he saw his empty wardrobe. looking right, he saw his hornbeam wand sitting on his bedside table. Looking forward, he saw the large chest that Sirius bought him. And hard as he tried, he couldn't successfully stare at the blank ceiling above him without thinking about what might happen tomorrow.

In all honesty, the short time he'd been her with this _other_ Dursley family had felt like some kind of dream… He had been slightly afraid every night that he'd awake in his cupboard, having tasted a glimmer of false hope only to go back to cooking large breakfasts for a bloated uncle and cousin.

Then there was the fact that other than going to Platform 9 ¾ of King's Cross Station, Harry had no idea where he was meant to go. At least Sirius had told him how to access the hidden platform, that could have been extremely awkward. In his head, he pictured the confusion of a just gone eleven year old boy, pushing around his trolley of luggage around a busy station, watching the clocks go along past 11 o'clock…

It was rather odd how the trains had been replaced with mounted spiders though and these platforms seemed to go on literally forever.

"Harry, you need to get up!"

"Wha- What's the time?" Harry yelled as he shot upright and looked around in panic. The sun was suddenly up. How peculiar.

"It's seven, waking up time. When else have I woken you up?" Rose asked with an innocent smile pasted onto her face.

Harry gave her a half-lidded stare until a yawn bubbled out of his mouth.

"Anyway, it's your last day here, of course I'm gonna wake you up can't have you being late," Rose went on, unimpeded, "Just because I'm not coming with you is no reason not to wake you up."

"Whatever, at least let me get dressed." Harry crawled out of his bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he approached the chest. Slowly, he lifted the lid, and lowered himself down the ladder into his own personal changing room. It was relatively small, just had one large wardrobe, a mirror, table and chair. But he didn't need it to be any bigger, it was just his after all. The only door led to what was essentially just a toilet and shower unit, but he wasn't going to use the shower today. Instead he just let go of the ladder and began dressing as the Ladder retreated up a bit and the lid slammed shut.

Sirius had explained that tugging the ladder down would reopen the lid, and while it was closed with Harry inside, no one else could open the chest.

When Harry emerged, he was wearing a plain green shirt and trousers. Rose simply stood on looking a bit thoughtful.

"What is it?" Harry asked as he picked up his wand and slipped it up his sleeve.

"I… I want one too…"

Harry just shook his head in amusement. "You'll need to ask Sirius, I have no clue where it came from. Let's go get some breakfast."

And so they descended calmly and ate breakfast. Actually, Harry made a fry up for the first time since before that morning with the Raspberry jam on toast when he received an unusual letter.

"Ooh, that smells good… Is it almost ready coz'?" Rose asked from the dining table, almost bouncing in excitement.

"Almost, just letting the bacon crisp a bit" replied Harry happily. He'd found he actually enjoyed cooking when he was doing it without the pressure of an overbearing Uncle. 'On that note' he thought to himself as he pushed down the lever for the toaster. He then expertly flipped the bacon onto the two plates and turned off the gas. "All ready"

"Yes!" Rose hissed triumphantly as she bounded over and picked up the two plates to carry them to the table. Harry quickly filled the pan with water and a dash of washing up liquid before coming over to eat.

It was just as he picked up his cutlery that Vernon walked in. This had been discussed as well, Harry was going to get a lift from Vernon, although he let Rose do that bit… Uncle Vernon was rather intimidating these days. Vernon looked at the pair of them with a hidden pinch of mirth before standing stoic in front of the toaster to await his own breakfast. Through glorious timing, he had his toast buttered and eaten just as Harry and Rose finished their fried breakfast.

As planned; they quickly deposited their washing up next to the sink and marched through the front door just as Petunia came downstairs. Vernon picked up the chest that he had brought downstairs from Harry's room with him as they walked through while Harry gave Petunia a hug and said goodbye. Within two minutes they were stowed and buckled into Vernon's Land Rover and were en route to King's Cross.

"I'm glad I got to try your fried breakfast before you left, I'd have been curious all year otherwise." Rose remarked as they pulled away from Privet Road.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," Harry responded with a smile, "I just hope aunt Petunia doesn't panic too much when she sees the frying pan."

"Don't worry about that" Vernon grunted from the front.

-=+_SA_+=-

"Huh" Harry murmured.

"What is it?" Rose asked as they descended to platform 9.

"My dream was actually quite accurate barring the giant spiders" Harry responded absentmindedly.

"I'm not even going to ask" Rose said, shaking her head as they cleared the stairs.

"Well, this should be it. One of these pillars." They slowly walked along, Harry brushing each pillar with his hand as they walked by, "You sure you're okay doing research here too?"

"Of course, I want to know how you got here too you know" Rose retorted. They wouldn't have discussed it except Vernon had opted to stay near his precious beast of a truck. "Besides, I can always get Sirius to buy me more books, and I can store them in your wardrobe now too."

Harry rolled his eyes before turning and hugging Rose. She froze in shock, this was actually the first time he'd hugged anyone in the family barring in response.

"I'm gonna miss you. Feels like I'm losing you as soon as I found you."

"Hey, you're coming back in December, right?" Rose said as she hugged him back.

"Yeah, I am" Suddenly Harry had detached himself and kept moving slowly down the platform.

"And you'll find some way to contact me. You will write won't you?" Rose asked.

"Of course" Harry assured as he stopped. He quickly pulled his hand out of the pillar, "this is it."

Rose stared at Harry, who stared back. Neither really knew how to say goodbye like this. Eventually, after what felt like a good large chunk of minutes, Rose spoke up.

"Well, see you soon. And hear from you sooner, 'kay?"

"Of course" Harry smiled. "I'll write as soon as I have something to write about."

"Bye" Rose said with a tiny wave as Harry slipped through the pillar, chest rolling behind him. She waited a couple of minutes before pressing a hand against the solid pillar for a second. Then she walked away, a sad smile on her face, as she walked her way back towards her father.

-=+_SA_+=-

As Harry dragged his chest through the pillar, for a moment he was plunged into darkness. Suddenly light filled his eyes, causing him to lift an arm up to shield them instinctively. As his eyes readjusted to daylight, he took in the platform. For the most part, it looked just like any other platform at King's cross, if you ignored the robed wizarding crowds, the odd shops and cafés that glowed and spewed odd colours and smoke, the gilded sign that read "9 ¾", the fact that it was the only platform visible, and that the train was a deep green steam locomotive.

In short it looked a lot like it's own separate train station but with similar architecture.

Glancing up at the grand clock that was halfway up a wall, Harry noted that he had a good quarter of an hour to spare before the train pulled away. Taking a deep breath, he strode forward, pulling the chest behind him and weaving between students and parents to the closest carriage.

Even though many people were lingering on the platform, many of the compartments were almost full. The first one he walked past he looked in and saw a small girl his age with familiar curled blonde hair and brown eyes talking excitedly with some upper years. One of whom had more than a passing resemblance to the lady Tonks who gave him his letter. He did notice that one boy looked rather annoyed at the girl's presence in the compartment as he move onto the next one.

The second compartment held a full group of seven first years. Including one who had eerily familiar curled blonde hair and brown eyes.

Harry stopped, placing down his chest, and walked back to the first compartment where the girl who must be related to Tonks or something was demonstrating a simple light spell to the bedazzled first year with her curled blond hair and brown eyes which were identical to those of the girl in the next compartment.

Moving on, Harry shook his head to try and dislodge the coincidence as he picked up his chest again and resumed dragging it along the carriage. The third compartment contained some mid year students, already in their uniform robes, lined in yellow. With them was the same girl.

By the twelfth compartment, he gave up and dragged his chest into the next half full section as soon as he saw a face he recognised. Inside already was a couple of strapping young lads with beefy limbs and heavy builds. One had brown hair while the other had black, and was slightly larger. Susan Bones was also there chatting happily with the girl from every other compartment.

Seeing Harry enter, Susan jumped up. "Let me help you with that Harry"

The two quickly managed to get the chest onto the luggage rack overhead as the two boys watched with glinting wary eyes.

"Thanks Susan. Can you introduce me?" Harry said with a vague wave of his arm.

"Of course" she replied with a cheery smile. "This is Sally-Anne Perks, and those are Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe." As she spoke names, Susan pointed to the blond girl, the brown haired boy, and the more chubby black haired boy in turn. "And this is Harry Potter" She continued to everyone else.

"A pleasure" said Vincent, as he shook Harry's hand firmly.

"Likewise" added Gregory, taking Harry's hand immediately afterwards. Harry nodded to both of them. As he turned to Sally, she smiled.

"Nice to finally meet you. I kept seeing you around the alley one day, but I never actually met you." Sally softly said.

"Yeah, Nice to meet you all as well…" Harry trailed off awkwardly, not sure what else to say. As much as he'd began to enjoy spending time with his cousin, he was still inexperienced in socialising. He also wasn't sure if he should even attempt to ask about how he'd seen her twin or something like in every compartment…

"Has someone told you about the houses yet?" Susan asked, eyes bright with excitement, "I did say I'd tell you about them, didn't I."

Nodding mutely, Harry barely noticed Gregory and Vincent exchange a look and shuffle a bit in their seats. He paid it no mind.

"Well, I told you I want to be a Gryffindor. Gryffindor is the house of the brave, and the courageous. The house you go into depends on your personality you see." Susan said with a look of knowledge, "Their colours are red and gold, and they're mascot is a lion. The other houses are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin."

"Ravenclaw is traditionally the house of the inquisitive and intelligent. They're blue and bronze" Sally suddenly said, "Hufflepuff, whose colours are yellow and black, is the house of the loyal and hard working. And the Slytherin house, green and silver, is the house of the cunning and ambitious."

Susan nodded in agreement, "Ravenclaw has a raven mascot, Hufflepuff has a badger, and Slytherin a snake."

"Of course, there's more to each house than just those traits, but they're the mostly widely recognised." Sally went on. "I've been asking lots of the students on this train about their houses, and they tend to vary on lots of what they say… No one told me how you get sorted though…"

'Yeah, I saw you asking them' Harry thought to himself with a thoughtful look as he tried to absorb all the information

"Very succinctly put you two. We approve." Gregory suddenly said. "Good to see that _some_ people are smart enough to appreciate the Slytherin house."

"We hear a lot of people prosecute the house of snakes for producing a multitude of Dark Lords over the centuries…" Vincent continued with a nasty grin, "Not exactly their fault that Slytherin Dark Lords tend to be more successful now is it?"

"Huh. Was Voldemort a Slytherin then?" Harry asked with a frown.

Sally took on a confused look while the boys sank back into silence, ominously watching the others. Susan crinkled her face in thought as she pondered. "I don't know… I think that's the general consensus, that he probably was, but I don't think it's been recorded or anything."

Gregory grinned widely, "I knew we picked a good couple girls here Vince, no leapin' great assumptions here."

"Yeah, although… Voldemort isn't a name ever been through Hogwarts that we know of. It's probably a moniker, a fake name."

"I take it you two plan on getting into Slytherin then" Sally murmured. The two boys nodded slowly in response.

"What about you Sally, where do you think you'll end up?" Susan asked

Sally lowered her head in thought for a few seconds, "I'm not sure… Don't really like to self analyse anyway. How about you Harry?"

"I dunno…" Harry responded slowly, "None of them sound bad, I guess I'll just go wherever I end up."

Vincent and Gregory nodded approvingly, when suddenly the train jerked into motion and everyone turned to the window as if to check they were actually moving.

Soon everyone began to talk again. Sally talking with Susan about Quidditch, Vincent and Gregory quietly putting in their opinions occasionally, and Harry silently listening along.

-=+_SA_+=-

"Hello, has anyone seen a toad?" Said a voice as the door opened by way of bushy haired brunette. Everyone turned to her in response. She was already wearing her uniform, barely an hour into the journey, despite clearly being a first year.

"No, sorry" Susan said as Harry and Sally shook their heads in turn.

"Oh…" The brunette looked slightly put out. "Well, can you keep an eye out for it? Ron Weasley lost his toad not long ago"

"Sure" Harry said with a cheerful nod that caused the girl to blush and leave quickly, leaving Harry mostly confused. Turning to Susan he then asked, "Any idea what that was about?"

Susan gave Harry a flat look. "If you don't know I'm not going to tell you" She stated flatly.

The door suddenly opened again revealing a kindly old lady with a trolley stacked high with sweets, "Anything from the trolley dears? Got everything from Chocolate Frogs and Liquorice Wands to Bettie Francis Everett's Every Flavoured Beans."

Susan requested some Chocolate Frogs and Sally bought a small box of the Every Flavoured Beans. The boys asked for and received both Blood Pops and Cockroach Clusters leaving Harry to take another small box of beans and a bundle of Liquorice Wands.

Suddenly the compartment was much more quite apart from the crunching of Cockroach Clusters, which caused the girls to wince almost every time.

"It's odd" Sally suddenly said, breaking the silence, "Every compartment, the trolley still looks full…"

"How do you know that?" Harry asked between mouthfuls of Liquorice Wand.

"I have my ways" She replied mysteriously, "How are the frogs Susan?"

"Tasty" She said as she rummaged through the packaging and extracted a couple of heptagonal cards, "Managed to get a few new cards, Got a Morgana for example. How are your, uh… beans?"

Susan asked with such hesitation not because they were every flavoured beans, but because Sally-Anne had poured them out and was apparently now sorting them into groups. She hadn't yet eaten any. "Decent, just extracting the ones that are really not good. Like this one:" She held up a vivid green bean that appeared to glow a bit. "No idea what it is, but it tastes horrible. So it's going out along with the sulphurous and rancid flavours" As she said that, she deposited it into a pile that seemed to have a common theme of being slightly off coloured in a way that made Harry wary as he looked at them.

He glanced down at his own carton of beans and had a feeling of regret about buying them. Still he cracked it open and carefully plucked out a bean, it was a soft green with swirls of orange. He warily licked it, only to be pleased to find it had a taste like a mouthful of Toffee Apple.

"Good choice for your first bean" Sally remarked, "But if you want to know which ones to avoid, let me know a bit later and I can make sure you're prepared.

"I'll do that at some point" Harry nodded as he threw the bean into his mouth and peered down at the rest of them for a bit

The entire time this had been going on, the two lads had quietly been sitting with their Blood Pops, slowly enjoying them.

-=+_SA_+=-

The trip had been otherwise unremarkable, no odd visitors, no sightings of any toads, and getting dressed had simply involved throwing one of the School Robes over their regular clothing and tying a tie.

The atmosphere as the group departed the train onto Hogsmeade Station was one of confusion and chaos. Students wearing robes lined in all four colours flowed up the platform towards carriages that appeared to pull themselves away as soon as they were full, or close to full, and down the other end of the platform stood an enormous man in a massive coat. His hair and beard mingled together making it hard to see his face at all, but if you looked closely, you could see the little black eyes that glinted in the cool evening air.

And it was evening. Somehow the journey had taken just short of seven hours in total.

"We need to go this way" Sally said, pointing towards the giant of a man, who was yelling something indecipherable into the air.

"How do you know that" Harry asked as he watched several black robed first years wander towards the carriages only to be pointed towards the other end of the platform by… Was that Tonks?

Sally looked as if she didn't know why he was asking. "Because an upper year told me of course. Are you coming or not?"

With a shrug from Susan and a grunt of agreement from Vincent and Gregory, they group moved down towards the great man who waved his lantern in the air as if trying to draw the First Years to him by it's light.

"Fur yarn, now stew tents, corn the wan plea!" The man cried into the air.

Harry exchanged a glance with Susan before asking Sally, "Are you sure about this?"

"I think so" She responded, "Cedric said that no one could really understand him through his beard. But he should be trying to tell the first years to follow him and later we need to go four to a boat."

"That's pretty clear. If only we knew what boats he meant" Susan mumbled. Soon the sea of black clad children were all that were left on the platform, all huddled in groups near the gigantic man. Every other student had gone the other way.

"Fall warmer" the man yelled as he strode away down another pathway. The kids behind him all had to half run in order to keep up with his massive strides. Soon the little huddles of students began to murmur as the large group climbed up the crest of a hill.

"Key peck lawsuit. An dears nettle awn." the man yelled once again leaving most of the crowd to simply mutter in confusion and follow on after him.

"Any idea what he's saying now?" Harry asked in bewilderment.

"Not a bloody idea" Sally responded, "I think Cedric just told me the important parts"

"Hair weir! Yah nor haul, Hogwarts!"

"He just said Hogwarts!" Someone bravely yelped out loud, just as the group turned a corner in the path which coincided nicely with the peak of the hill.

Suddenly they could all see the rest of the path leading down towards a great lake, across which they could see on of the most unique sights most people would ever see in their lives. The castle of Hogwarts.

It was a structure of glory, an architectural disaster. The core of the castle was squared off. While each couple of floors, the main structure became smaller in width, at several points, floating corridors led to freestanding towers. Some towers were connected by their base to the lower castle tiers, others were both free floating and unsupported, only accessible through the floating corridors. Around the entire structure on what was probably level with the fifth or sixth floor was a great ring that revolved, floating, around the castle. As it spun, multicoloured bolts of energy jumped across the ring and to the castle below.

The rest of the descent was spent in slow moving silent awe of the view in front of them, some of the sharper eyed children could make out the carriages pulling to the front gates of the castle and the students getting off. Most however couldn't tear their eyes away from the insane architecture that surely would not exist if not for an impressive amount of magic.

The pathway beneath their feet widened very slightly as it went downwards until it eventually stretched out to cover the entire torch-lit dock area in front of them.

"Ah reed, normal row fear tan bore"

"Oh, that must mean no more than four to a boat" Sally whispered, and the other four of them nodded in agreement before simultaneously turning to Harry.

"Why are you all…" Harry mournfully asked as Susan, Sally, Gregory and Vincent simultaneously climbed into one boat.

With a sigh, Harry clambered onto a boat that had three people already inside. He nodded in greeting to the others there. One boy, with sandy blonde hair smiled in response, the other with sharp eyes, dirty blond hair and a long hat simply responded with the word "Hey!" The girl though, ignored him. She had deep green eyes and flowing honeyed blonde hair, but she merely stared up at the castle.

The large man suddenly walked past, plucking up a boy who tried to settle into another boat with four people and depositing him into a boat with three. The sudden movement brought the students into a stunned silence for a few seconds before they carefully continued filling the boats.

"Al sear ted, than more son to ten stark boar. Al she piss former led!"

As the heavy voice filled the air, the boats jerked forwards and began to smoothly float across the surface of the water. With a slightly worried look, Harry jerked his head back, but sighed in relief that the docks they just left were empty of people.

The floating journey over the lake was eerily quiet, considering. Most students seemed to be quite entranced by the massive castle overhead as it's ring eerily lanced bolts of energy silently around itself. Some kids managed to get up the courage to break the lack of noise by muttering conversations across their boats. Harry was quick to notice that his boat's occupants weren't one of the few to break the quiet.

A smaller number carefully leant over the water, even as the great man, who had his own boat to himself, yelled, "Dinner bay lay ninja veer tea wart. An deep nightly, don took tea wart eve murk" Harry warily followed suit by glancing into the deep dark water his boat floated upon.

'Did I see something moving down there?' he thought to himself with a frown as he looked back up at the three others in the boat.

The girl was still unmoving, apparently staring ahead at something else in the far distance, and otherwise completely ignoring the three boys in the boat. The boys though were looking around the lake, trying to take in as much of the view as possible all at once.

'… wait, is something glowing underneath his hat?'

"Ice add, Dinnae bay lain oh veer tea war here! An don look tea war here ever lurk!" The words roared ominously like a rolling thunder that shook everyone to attention. Everyone then noticed how close they were getting to the other side of the lake, which looked like a rock wall coated in ivy. Which caused a number of the students to tense in fear.

"Key ore hen coin" The man's voice rumbled, just before they passed through the Ivy covered rock face, only to be cut off by the fear filled scream of the girl in Harry's boat. She kept hyperventilating as more boats seemingly disappeared and was inches from trying to jump out as their own boat passed through the solid rock only to arrive at another dock, this one inside a cavernous portion of the lake.

"Did we just teleport?" Harry blurted out.

"We are not entirely sure, but the lady here almost gave us a heart attack." The hatless boy said in a very Irish accent.

"Heyah!" Yelled the other boy.

"That is indeed correct, it was terribly rude of us not to introduce ourselves. We are Seamus Finnigan at your service" Continued the hatless one as he offered his hand, "And this is Neville Longbottom"

"Yah!" Shouted Neville excitedly.

"Harry Potter" Harry replied, shaking Seamus' hand.

The girl who was now curled in a ball at their feet opened her eyes and sat up. "Oh, it was a illusion wall. How silly of me" She said shakily as she lifted herself back into the seat while the boat pulled itself into a dock.

Harry twitched in something between confusion and bemusement that the girl had managed to get so terrified of a second coming of the platform 9 ¾ barrier.

"I'm Daphne, Daphne Greengrass." The girl said with a pleasant voice, her hair was perfectly styled despite her having fallen and curled up into a ball.

"I'm pleased to meet you?" Harry said, his words tilting into a question as he wondered if he actually was pleased to meet her. So far she seemed to be more than a bit out of it.

The awkward silence that then spawned didn't last long. Soon the boats all jerked to a stop just short of the dimly lit wooden docks.

Even as Neville Longbottom leapt from the boat with a yell, the giant man stood and spoke loudly over him, "Karma food, place is litre about far bully an slick mellow men"

Harry spotted Sally and Susan exchanging a look and shrugging. 'Clearly I'm not the only one who didn't get that' He thought as he climbed out of the boat after Seamus, who managed to do it in a way that looked both rushed and graceful.

He paused as he heard a yelp behind him. Turning around, Harry found Daphne had managed to fall over as she escaped the boat herself. Seamus was already helping her up from the spot she was lying with a worried "Are you okay Lady Greengrass?"

"I'm alright, just slipped I think." She replied as she clambered to her feet, only to wobble dangerously as she brushed herself off, even though she somehow still looked immaculate…

"Orryah!" Neville exclaimed, pointing to the first years, slowly following Hagrid up the dock towards a large door. The rest of them quickly followed on. Except Seamus who was now carefully escorting Daphne along to prevent another nasty fall.

Really, Harry was most surprised that she still looked completely fine despite laying down on both the uneven ground of the cavern and the dirty, and damp, bottom of their boat.

Hagrid quickly approached the large door and slammed his fist upon it three times, sending echoing bangs around the entire cave. After the noise had settled, leaving most of the first years' ears ringing, silence reigned for a good five seconds until the door noisily clanked and creaked open.

A/N: Well that was interesting. We've met a whole new group of Harry's Year mates now! Some of these characters will be closer friends than others, but I'm going to try and keep as many involved as possible. You just know I'm going to have my favourites though, be sure to let me know if you want to see more of a specific character.

Also, I could've done a better job describing the Castle of Hogwarts, but I want to draw a picture of what I have in mind. That will probably become the Story's thumbnail pic. Or not, who knows.


	5. Book 1 Chapter 4

Harry Potter and The Reality Shift

Join Harry Potter as he learns that he is a Wizard! And as he meets all new faces in a world completely different from his own. Harry is about to see the reality is not as fixed as he would have once thought. By the end of the next academic year not only will he be armed with a beginners knowledge of magical spells, but will know much more of a certain alchemical stone, and the fact that nothing is impossible.

**Chapter 4: The Sorting- Where's The Hat?**

The Door opened, revealing a stoic and hard faced witch, "Is this all of them then Hagrid?"

"Aye! The way blight ears marl un a crane yon lord on un pea!" Hagrid chuckled at the job well done.

"Thank you Hagrid" She responded, as she did every year. Assuming that all the First years were in fact present. As they were. Although last year he reported that two were missing, but no one realised that they had slipped onto the carriages until their names were called out for sorting and they stood up from a table.

"Hello and welcome to Hogwarts, I am Professor Burbage, The Professor for Muggle Blending and Household Spells, and Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts. Please follow me and listen closely." Burbage proceeded to walk away from the open door, and the first years scampered after her leaving Hagrid to deal with the boats.

"In a few moments you will enter the Great Hall and be sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, the house of the courageous. Ravenclaw, the house of the intelligent. Slytherin, the house of the cunning. Or Hufflepuff, the house of the loyal. The house you enter will determine who you eat with, sleep with, and have classes with. Your house will become like your family, you will learn to depend on your housemates and you can always go to the Head of your house for assistance." As she walked and talked the children following were looking around, awestruck at the size of the hallways they walked through. Giggling as portraits acted out scenes and waved to them.

Professor Burbage led them up a set of stairs, and through several more corridors before coming out into a large hall, filled with banners and lined with suits of armour. While they had come through a reasonably sized door, of which there were several more now behind them, every other wall held sets of doors much larger, with the biggest set being in front of them

"In addition each house competes for the House Cup by earning House Points. You gain points by merit of working hard and being exceptional students. You lose points by acting out of line and generally being a nuisance or a danger to yourself and others." She stopped in front of the largest doors, and turned to face the first years. "Now. Wait here, I will come back in but a moment. Don't do anything extraordinarily stupid while I am gone." And with that she slipped through the doors and left them there.

Silence reigned for all of three seconds. Then a bushy haired girl spoke up: "I wonder how we get sorted. Hogwarts, A History doesn't say…"

This was the spark that began a low level of murmuring across the entire room.

"My brothers told me we put on a hat and it yells out which house we go to" spoke out one boy with a particularly fiery head of hair.

Snickers broke out all around as Harry grumbled under his breath, "I darn well hope not. The lice infestation would be legendary."

This then brought about a series of suggestions as to what might happen to decide which house they would belong to. One person suggested a multi-choice questionnaire, another guessed an assault course would be involved. Draco piped up a suggestion that they spin a wheel and the colour it landed on would decide your house. His suggestion drew yet more laughter.

"Obviously mates" Spoke out a voice, and everyone turned to see someone dressed up in a Mexican wrestling suit complete with a black mask, "The task to decide our house will be to wrestle a troll!"

"Aren't you supposed to be wearing a robe?" asked the red head.

"Ooh, a rambunctious group to be sorted this year…"

Harry looked up to the source of the voice to see a silvery translucent figure of an old monk drifting in the general direction of the Great Hall.

"Hey look, a ghost!" Piped up Draco helpfully.

Surprisingly, no one really reacted much more than that.

Then the doors opened once more and Professor Burbage appeared again, "It's time, come along everyone" And with that she walked back into the Great Hall, this time leaving the doors wide open.

The crowd of First Year students began their shuffle forwards into and through the Great Hall. On their left sat the tables of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, while Ravenclaw and Slytherin were on their right. Barely anyone was looking at the house tables, most of the group were staring in awe of the size of the room, with it's stretching walls and massive arching ceiling. Past the layer of floating orbs of light sat layers of windows around the entire room, of which there were both stain-glassed and plain varieties present.

The group eventually shuffled to a stop level with the front of the House tables, and just short of the raised area on which stood the comparatively ornate faculty table, Professor Burbage; who was now looking over them, and what appeared to be four young children.

Furthest to the left stood one with wild ginger hair, his eyes glowing with a golden light and a large grin adorned upon his face. The second had short fair blond hair and dark eyes that were almost black. She looked very much like she would rather be anywhere else however, as if trying to hide in her robe, in comparison to the excitable ginger haired boy. The next was a girl who pulled off a rather distinguished look, despite her young face and short stature, with long flowing Navy blue hair that flowed down her back and framed her slighter harder face and bronze eyes. Finally The last child had a slick head of deep green hair, and wispy silvery eyes that shone with an inner wit even as he smirked down upon the older looking children in front of him.

Murmurs began to bubble up in the students even as Professor Burbage shot up a yell: "As I read you name, step forward and you will be sorted." The first years looked about slightly confused even as she continued, "Hannah Abbot"

It was the name of a blond girl right at the front. She looked almost surprised as she froze for a couple seconds before almost stumbling forward.

"Oh," exclaimed the boy who clearly represented Gryffindor, "she looks like fun…" Just then the girl next to him mumbled something quietly, and Hannah's robes gained a yellow lining. The boy looked a bit disappointed, but quickly cheered up again as Burbage declared the next name.

"Susan Bones"

Susan stepped up with a bounce in her step. Somehow she had ended up at the front too. "Now she definitely has the courage of a-"

The boy was cut off again by a mumbled word and Susan's robe gaining a yellow lining. "What?" He said as Susan followed Hannah over to the yellow-clad table.

"Trevor Boot"

A third time the boy began, "Ok, he's got poten-"

A third time the first year gained yellow lined robes at a barely audible word from the black eyed girl.

"Seriously? You can't take _all_ of them Lena…" The Redhead began once more.

"Calm down Leo. You'll get some" said the miniature lady with the bronze eyes.

"Easy for you to say…" Muttered 'Leo' as Burbage let loose a half-second smile before schooling her features and calling out another name.

"Dean Thomas"

The Mexican Wrestler jumped forth from the front of the crowd with a yell, "Am I going to get to wrestle a troll or what?!"

"Now I know _he_ is a Gryffindor!" declared Leo proudly, producing a mumbled word or two from a blushing Lena.

"Of course, there's no question." said the bluenette calmly, as the Mexican wrestler outfit and mask gained red highlights.

"I must of course agree with Rei on this one. No where else he could belong." Said the green haired boy."

"What's that supposed to mean, huh Sid?" growled Leo.

"Oh nothing, nothing at all." Sid responded with a slight lilt of amusement in his voice.

"Kevin Entwhistle"

Harry turned to the boy next to him and asked, "Is the entire sorting going to be like this?"

Then he noticed the boy was wearing a fedora and appeared to be carrying a gun or two in his robe.

"Mm- I don' know… Maybe it is, maybe it isn't…" The boy drawled in what appeared to be a thick Italian mobster accent. By this point Kevin was heading towards the Gryffindor table, and Sue Li was called up.

Harry simply swallowed and turned to the boy on the _other_ side, "Do you know, are we even allowed guns and stuff in this school?"

"I'm sure we are" Cut in the mobster from Harry's right. "I mean otherwise, we might be havin' problems, you an' me. And then you might end up going for a long sleep or sometin' if you catch me drift…"

Harry looked somewhat horrified as the boy to his left cheerfully replied, "Oh yeah, I'm sure we must be allowed stuff like that! No reason not to be allowed, right?"

"Exactly, you get how the world works my friend, we could get along…" The mobster shot back as Sue followed Kevin to Gryffindor.

"Vincent Crabbe" The Professor continued.

Harry was simply sweating bullets as the first years shuffled forwards around him, clearly unknowing of the apparent danger amongst them. He just tried to focus on the front of the hall as best as he could.

Rei perked up at the sight of the comparatively large young boy, Sid noticed this however… "Yes, he would probably do well in Ravenclaw, of that I have no doubt, but I think he'd rather be with his friend, who I can see is clearly much more of a Slytherin nature…"

The bluenette slumped a bit in response, "I suppose you're right," she said as she waved him off slightly, and Vincent's robes gained a green lining.

"Ronald Weasley"

Rei just smirked as his robe lining almost immediately turned blue.

"No doubt where hw was going to go, huh?" Leo said, his words slightly marred by sarcasm, "Just like the rest of them"

"I'm certain I don't know what you mean." Rei responded.

"Gregory Goyle" Burbage called, only for his robes to immediately gain a green lining, and for her to seamlessly continue, "Tracey Davis"

Harry once again let his attention wander, finding that the Mobster had moved forward, and was instead trying to work out if there was a pattern to which windows had stained glass. After pondering for a good few minutes, and missing Tracey going to Hufflepuff, followed by Draco and Mandy Brocklehurst going to Gryffindor, he was no closer to working out a pattern as he saw Wayne Hopkins stride over to Ravenclaw.

The boy's robes flowed behind him in an invisible wind as he walked, and even at his young age he appeared to have some girls cooing towards his handsome looks…

"Padma Patil"

As she stepped forwards, her twin walked up with her, apparently unwilling to leave her side. The four at the front glanced at each other, before a barely audible "Mine" had both of their robes gain a yellow lining.

"Katrina MacDougal"

This time a girl with bronzed hair stepped forwards. Leo glanced towards Sid who looked like he wanted to say something, "I think she should go to Rei actually…"

Rei nodded as her robes gained blue highlights, and the Professor moved further down the list. "Seamus Finnigan"

"Well, where shall we be placed I wonder…" Seamus said quietly as he took a step forward. Harry wondered for a second how every name called just happened to be the person closest to the front.

"Gryffindor I think!" declared the puny ginger in front of him.

"Stephen Cornfoot"

This time a boy with bright ginger hair stepped forth. Leo smirked as he commented, "clearly his hair thinks he should be in my house…"

Rei just rolled her eyes while she continued to read through a book which she had gained at some point. Lena however quietly murmured, "He's mine too."

Stephen's robes gained yellow as he stepped away towards Hufflepuff table, and the next one was called forth.

"Michael Corner"

This time the boy had longish messy brown hair. Unfortunately, no comments arose because of this, but Rei did look up long enough to claim him as one of her own.

Harry looked up at the windows once more as Lisa Turpin was called forth. Give him a break people, he's only Eleven. He noticed that quite a few of them depicted a figure that appeared to be younger than the other people pictured. For example one showed a young boy with dark hair possibly fighting a man with two faces… Really quite odd…

Another showed a young girl with dark hair wearing Gryffindor red surrounded by three other older, or at least taller people. One had flowing golden hair dressed in blue, the second had blond hair and a yellow outfit, and the third was the bulkiest wearing a dark red Uniform. The were apparently hiding from dragons? Or there were dragons outside their house. Unusual.

It was at this point his attention was drawn back to the sorting for a moment as the fedora wearing boy was called forth by the professor saying "Roger Malone"

"Oh, he has a lot of potential." Sid exclaimed, clapping his hands.

"Does he?" Leo asked as he examined his nails.

Rei tutted, "You really need a better way to say you aren't interested. I for one am though."

"Plenty of ambition there." Sid commented.

"Yes, I can see it quite clearly" Rei responded as she went back to her book, "But I can also see his mind is better suited for the house of Intelligence, rather than the house of Cunning."

Sid sighed as he crossed his arms, "I suppose…"

Harry looked back up as Roger walked over to Ravenclaw table, wearing his now blue trimmed hat and robes. Harry glance to one particular stain glass window that showed the same young girl as the previous one he had examined. She stood in the midst of a battleground, and despite not looking any older than in the other window, she was clad in silver armour wielding two long swords, fighting off assailants clad in darkness. He didn't know what about it drew his attention, but Harry stared intently at the girls green eyes that seemed to glow as light poured through the window.

"Harry Potter" The Stern Professor finally intoned. Immediately Harry straightened up to attention, now noticing he was the only first year left to be sorted. All four houses watched him as one of the last barriers between them and dinner, and all four house spectres looked at him carefully.

Lena glanced silently at her siblings with her black eyes, but it was Leo who first spoke: "I want him."

"No way," Cut in Sid, glaring at his red haired brother "He's the first parseltongue we've seen in decades, he was _born_ for Slytherin."

"But he has so much Courage! You can practically smell it!" retorted Leo.

"Yes, he does have courage" Allowed the silver-eyed spectre, "But he isn't exactly lacking in cunning now is he?"

"um..."

"Both of his parents were Gryffs" the golden-eyed one quickly countered, pointing accusingly at his brother.

Suddenly a third contestant arose: "He has the intellect of a Ravenclaw, I think he should be in my house."

"The intellect of a raven, perhaps... But his mind is blunt. His cunning has been far more recently in use." Sid replied curtly.

"Hey, Hey!" Burst out Leo, waving his arms about quite a bit, "He's _far_ more Gryffindor than anything else!"

"Can I..."

"How so?" Rei sharply Questioned, arms crossed over her book as she glared at him with her bronze eyes.

"Uh, well... He's got loads of courage and stuff..." Leo faltered for a moment before focusing on his sister, "No fair. You're both much better at words than I am. And besides, you both know exactly how good a Gryffindor he could be!"

"Hmph" Sid grunted as he too crossed his arms.

"Please..."

"Whatever" Rei sighed. "Wherever he ends up though, you better not let his mind remain dull, or You'll suffer a thousand paper cuts while I sharpen his wit instead" She was now glaring at both of them.

Harry was beyond bewildered. The entire Great Hall had slowly grew silent to watch in awe. This had never happened before. 'Are they... fighting over me?', "Erm, Excuse me?" Harry said clearly.

The three arguing children, as well as almost the entire population of Hogwarts turned to the current person of debate, shocked at all the attention, Harry gathered himself. "I, uh... I think that your... other sister? wants to say something..."

The three blinked, surprised, and turned to Lena.

The final child was now blushing and appeared to be trying to make herself as small as possible, but she managed to murmur her thoughts, "I think that, well, H-He'd probably fit into any of them... What I mean to say... Please stop fighting."

Her black eyes were now concealed behind her fringe and her speech became less and less audible. But they had heard enough and slowly turned back to one another.

"Well" Rei began, "he _was_ brave enough to speak up in front of the entire hall..."

"Yes!" Leo lit up as he pumped his fist. If a second house agreed then it was practically guaranteed that he would get Harry.

"but remember Leo" Sid smoothly intoned, "we'll _all _be looking out for him. Don't even think about complaining."

"Yeah, yeah" He said, waving off the seriousness of his brother's words. "I gotcha Sid" And he turned towards Harry, looking up at the small eleven year old "Welcome to Gryffindor!"

Harry barely took notice that his robes had become red, he just scurried over to the red clad table as quickly as possible. As he sat down, and the house began to quietly congratulate him on his sorting, the four at the front of the hall faded away and reappeared at the foot of their respective tables. Professor Burbage gathered up the scroll of names and moved behind the table to sit down as another man stood, his silvery beard so long that Harry thought he could see it under the faculty table.

"Hello, and welcome to another year at our grand institution. I am professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Now, firstly I have a few announcements: You will all be pleased to know, I'm sure, that we have another series of new professors this year joining us."

He paused as if for applause, but continued before any more than a couple of confused people clapped once.

"Firstly we have, returning from a sabbatical across Europe, Professor Quirrel. He is returning to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts this year."

This time a respectable amount of applause followed in the short gap as Quirrel stood briefly to bow. "Additionally, Rubeus Hagrid, our Groundskeeper has volunteered to help professor Kettleburn continue to teach Care of Magical Creatures, since the professor lost his arm to a particularly aggressive drake in the forest at the end of the last year."

A polite applause followed, along with murmuring from the first years about what drakes were, and what forest held them. But before anyone could answer, Dumbledore continued again, "And lastly we have a new subject, suggested to me this Summer, Magical Theory shall be taught to all years from this years onwards as an optional ungraded class designed to teach you all how magic works throughout the world. It is taught by our new professor Darius Riuta, who suggested it to me."

This time the applause was noticeably quieter at the introduction of a new class. While Harry clapped along, he did notice some frowning from some of the professors apparently about the inclusion of this new subject, most notably the frown on Professor Burbage's face.

"That's all for this year I am afraid" Dumbledore continued with a smile, "Now a few notices before we continue. Firstly, the Forbidden Forest is still forbidden. Please refrain from going in there, you might be eaten before our groundskeeper can find and retrieve you. To clarify, the Forbidden forest is the forest out the main door and to the right past the greenhouses. It is notably, the only forest in the area."

This cause another uprising of whispers among some of the students.

"Additionally, please note that the corridor on the third floor that heads out towards the floating tower is again out of bounds. Please don't go there, unless you want to experience a most painful death."

Professor Burbage made a quiet noise, and nudged Dumbledore, giving him a pointed shake of her head.

"Ah" He continued as he looked back up. "Sorry, you probably won't experience a painful death, I think. But all the same, the corridor is still out of bounds to the best of my knowledge, so please don't go there unless it is announced to be safe."

Despite the still displeased face of the professor to his right, he continued, "And finally, there are a few more prohibited items on the list. Quite frankly, it is too long now, and I cannot be bothered to recite the entire thing, but it can be found pinned to the door of the caretakers office. Please note that the list does in fact unfold four times, no less than four, exactly _four_ times. And don't try to remove or damage the list thank you. It won't work. Now, finally, onto dinner."

As Dumbledore sat down, Harry simply stared in front of him for a second, feeling quite out of it.

"Hey, you okay there?" A familiar voice asked.

Harry shook himself lightly and looked up past the food at Sally. "Yeah, I think so… Just a lot of info to take in."

"I wouldn't worry about it, it's all on the notice board in the common room." an upper year boy next to him said. "I'm Oliver by the way, Oliver Wood."

"Harry Potter" Harry said in introduction as he shook the offered hand.

Oliver smiled as he went on, " Best help yourself to some food. It doesn't seem to run out, but eventually it will disappear, you know."

It was then Harry actually realised that the table was nearly overflowing with foods of all sorts. In fact the only spot that wasn't covered was his own plate that he was sure wasn't there when he sat down. Needless to say, Harry was beginning to feel a bit hungry, so he started semi-robotically filling his plate up.

"Now, as we were wanting to know, would you please be kind enough to tell us what exactly a drake is?" Seamus asked from the other side of Oliver. Neville agreed with a loud "Yah!" between gulps from a big jug labelled with a giant cow head.

"Ah yes… Drakes are the lesser known cousins of Dragons. tend to be much less intelligent, although they can vary in size from that of a large horse to that of a small house," Oliver explained. "I believe a few live in the Forbidden Forest…"

"Uh, what was that about the third floor corridor though?" Harry asked.

Oliver smiled wistfully, before eating some carrots and continuing. "Yeah, not sure about that really. The corridor was out of bounds last year, has been for a while. The death part was new though, but it looks like the Headmaster wasn't supposed to say _that_ bit. He is a bit twisted though, that Dumbledore."

Harry thoughtfully chewed his way through a tough slice of beef before glancing up at the window that used to show a young girl wearing armour in the midst of battle.

It now showed a staff wielding wizard who was apparently wearing a snake standing next to a knight and two other witches looking over a castle in construction.

"Hey, what's up with the windows? They were different earlier…"

"Alicia has wondered the same thing many times, until one day Alicia asked a professor." Said an older girl on Harry's other side. Harry noted that there were three of them sitting together, another nodded in agreement.

"Alicia is right, Katie remembers it well. Alicia asked Professor Binns."

"Professor Binns told Alicia that the castle has been around so long that magic has imbued upon it a kind of sentience" Said the third girl. "It decides what the windows show, and if they show anything at all. Same thing with the moving staircases and the like." She suddenly grimaced, "Angelina once couldn't find the common room for sake of it moving around all day."

The first girl smiled, "Yes, Alicia remembers, Angelina was chasing the common room practically all day."

"It was _not_ funny," The third girl declared, glaring at the first, "Angelina got absolutely no work done that day, Angelina only became tired from all the walking…"

"Katie thinks the windows also show different things to whoever looks at them too. Angelina, Alicia and Katie never agree on what a window actually looks like." The second girl said to Harry, who was by this point rather confused. "This actually reminds Katie… It was the day Alicia looked at the window and realised that they changed that Katie, Alicia and Angelina started talking in third person…"

"Ah yeah…" Oliver said. "It was just after Easter last year wasn't it? That was quite odd."

"Angelina can't complain, it makes conversations quite fun for Alicia, Katie and Angelina. Oh, the desserts are here, Harry best eat his Dinner before it goes."

Harry noticed that the girl, Angelina he thought, was right, and that desserts had replaced the main course. Harry quickly finished off his vegetables, before claiming himself a slice of treacle tart to have for pudding.

As he ate the last bite, the table cleared itself, and Professor Burbage stood up with another four professors. The older students slowly started to work their way out of the hall as Professor Burbage began to speak, "First years, I'd like to introduce the House Heads, Professors Snape, Flitwick, McGonagall and Sprout. They will lead you to you house common rooms now."

Harry glanced around, 'odd' he thought. He was sure he'd seen Sally-Anne in every house group, but every Sally-Anne also appeared to be wearing the right colour of robe. He also met the eyes of Susan and Daphne. He also caught the bushy haired girl staring at him, but she quickly looked away blushing.

It was then that Harry saw the Professor in front of them, her hair was mostly black, with a few silvery hairs here and there, and her green eyes twinkled with some hidden mirth. "It's a pleasure to see so many of you have joined my house this year, I am Professor McGonagall, the Transfiguration professor and head of Gryffindor house. If you will follow me, I shall lead you to our house common room."

McGonagall quickly led the first year Gryffindors from the Great Hall. She quickly began leading them up the staircases following and passing some other straggling Gryffindors who were lingering slowly in the corridors and stairwells. "As today is Friday, you will have the weekend to settle into Hogwarts. I suggest you spend the time finding new friendships, but also exploring the many corridors of the Castle. Some of you may have been told by the older students that the castle is somewhat alive, and don't worry… It is."

It was at that moment, perhaps a bit too coincidentally, that the stair case Harry just stepped from swung away from them, leaving a precarious drop behind him. McGonagall continued on, "the Stair cases have a tendency to move at odd times, and there are secret passages that will lead you wherever you want to go faster than walking by foot will ever do."

Here though McGonagall gained a shifty smirk. "Most of you will spend seven years wandering these halls only to leave without even knowing half of the castle's secrets. A rare few of you may be lucky enough to find a majority of it's secret passages, hidden rooms and more. But I can safely bet that none of you will know all of this castle's tricks. I think the Headmaster doesn't yet, and he has wandered these halls some hundred years or so."

Surprisingly quickly the group stopped outside a large painting, stretching down to floor level, of what appeared to be Robin Hood teaching his Merry Men how to use a bow. Oddly enough, most of them were failing to an amusing degree. Upon seeing the professor stop in front of the painting, he bowed deeply before her with a respectful, "My lady."

The picture frame suddenly swung open revealing a doorway into a large room. It was warmly lit and set up half like an overly large living room, and half like a communal study room. The whole room was decorated in a tasteful selection of deep reds and oranges, with golden highlights on certain furniture pieces.

"Now, a few things to note," Professor McGonagall said as she stopped, and turned to face them. "The painting will let in you, and any other Gryffindors, but not anyone from another house unless they are escorted by a Gryffindor. The same applies to every other house. The dormitories are up the stairs behind me, boys to the left, girls to the right, and the notice board is on the wall between the stairs. This common room will never move about the castle, so in the morning, just head out and go downstairs to find the Great Hall for breakfast. Please don't leave anyone behind; because we'll be handing out your class schedules at breakfast. It wouldn't do to be even more late to class than you already will be for getting lost, simply because you didn't know which class you have to go to."

It was at this point, that a couple of older students approached, the girl had slightly dull green eyes and fair long blond hair, while the boy had a mess of dark ginger hair and crystal blue eyes.

Professor McGonagall nodded to them before going on, "These two are Natalie Fairbourne and Jason Swann. They are the current fifth year Prefects. They will be responsible primarily for any issues you have. If you need some advice, ask them, and they should be able to help. If they can't, they will report you to me. If for some reason the problem is also above my station, I will report you to professor Burbage, the deputy Headmistress, or professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster. And finally I would like to once again welcome you to Hogwarts, I shall see you all tomorrow, or at your first Transfiguration lesson."

As McGonagall swept by them she paused in the doorway and half turned back.

"Oh, and one more thing, Good luck coming through this School in one piece, you'll probably need it."

And with a mischievous smile on her lips she left the room proper, letting the painting turned door swing shut behind her.

Natalie and Jason exchanged a quick look, and then looked upon the first years, "Okay," began Natalie, "First of all I'm Natalie, and that's Jason. While both of us are here, try and think of us as like… Older siblings or something."

"Secondly," Jason continued, "as the professor said, if you have any problem, _any_ problem, let us know. Can be anything from 'I can't find the Potions classroom' to 'Can you help me tie my shoelaces."

Natalie gave Jason a look before going on: "Just bear in mind that we have study to do too, so don't be offended if we assign someone else to help you with a long term problem like troubles learning History of Magic. And don't ask me to tie your shoelaces, I wear slip-ons, never learned how to tie shoelaces."

Jason just smirked, "Your bedrooms are the closest going up the stairs, and your luggage should already be in there. I'm taking a guess at that you're all quite tired by now, so if you just want to head on up, claim and bed and go to sleep, be my guest!"

As the first years slowly split by gender and began making their way up the stairs, Harry glanced towards the other boys. He knew Draco, Seamus and Neville, but the other two he couldn't recall their names.

It was as they entered their bedroom and found their trunks had already chosen their beds that Harry sighed with relief. Maybe he'd just be able to go to bed right away.

Seamus had other plans.

"Right then, seeing as all of us may well be spending the next seven years sleeping in the same room, We suppose it might a good idea for us to introduce ourselves."

Harry was confused, was he introducing himself, or asking everyone to make introductions?

"We are Seamus Finnegan, who are you guys?"

Oh, he was asking everyone to make introductions.

Draco was the first to make a move. To be fair he was very quick off the bat: "I'm Draco, Draco Malfoy. I like cucumbers and dislike complex incantations. my hobbies include Quidditch and my dream is to be a league level player!"

Harry tried to sigh under his breath as one of the other boys replied.

"I be Kevin Entwhistle, I like Pirates! I dislike ninjas however, my only hobby is sailing, and I one day hope to captain me own pirate crew."

Harry was really hoping he could break the lengthy introduction chain. "Hi, I'm Harry Potter. I like sleep."

Dean Thomas suddenly jumped in, his Mexican wrestler suit taking attention quite well. Probably because it looked rather uncomfortable. "I'm Dean Thomas, I like fancy dress, which is also my main hobby!"

"Huh…" Declared Neville. He didn't say anything else, but the light under his hat suddenly escaped somehow, and began to speak. "Hi, I'm Shingle, and this is Neville Longbottom!"

"I, well, what are you?" Draco blurted out.

"I'm sort of like a fairy, but not…" trailed off shingle. "I sort of act as Neville's mouthpiece, doesn't work out too well, I get tired real quick and have to go back to sleep."

"Hyah, Ryaa!" Neville called out.

"Ah, Neville mostly enjoys some swordplay as his hobby. and he dislike how I treat his head as my own personal bed… But I can't really help it, his hair is so comfy…"

Shingle was already slowly drifting back towards Neville's head.

Harry smiled slightly, as he kicked his trunk, springing open the lid revealing his clothes. He swiftly plucked out a set of pyjamas before closing the trunk again. He quickly shirked his clothing to change, "much as I'm enjoying this, this has been a long day. I can get to know you tomorrow right?"

He was soon lying in bed as his roommates continued chatting away quietly.

Unfortunately, Harry didn't manage to get to sleep for what felt like a few hours…

-=+_SA_+=-

A/N: I'll probably start putting Hagrid's bits translated in brackets. Especially if I end up giving him any ungodly long paragraphs like what McGonagall had. Apologies for the text walls on that note. But I did feel they were somewhat in required.


End file.
